[Brachytherapy in the treatment of prostatic carcinoma]

Radiotheraphy of prostatic cancer began using brachitherapy. In 1910 Paschkis and in 1911 Pasteau reported treatment of prostatic carcinoma with radium needles. In 1952, Flocks began implanting a colloidaly radioactive gold-198 solution into the prostate after surgical exploration. This approach was optimized by Carlton in 1965 using solid gold-198 implants combined with external beam therapy. In 1972 Withmore et al reported the use of iodine-125 seeds for interstitial irradiation. In 1977 Court and Chassagne introduced after loading techniques using iridium-192. This technique has been developed further by Syed et al. In these settings interstitial radiotherapy is used as localized boost in combination with external beam therapy. Prostate brachytherapy can be divided into temporary implantation using high activity sources, or permanent brachytherapy using the interstitial implantation of iodine-125 or palladium-103 sources. We reported an overview.