TheraSeed Palladium-103

GolfWi

I was diagnosed with PC less than a month ago, PSA 3.3, Gleason 6, Stage T1c. I have been reading all of your posts for hours and have not seen many comments on TheraSeed Brachytherapy. I know of someone who recently had the seeds implanted and has had no complications with incontinance and ED. The litature I have read states that the palladium based isotope is much safer than the iodine based. Of course the lititure/studies were provided to me by the company that sells it so it is biased I'm sure. I can tell many of you have done exhaustive researh on your treatment options, which I am just starting. I am 51 and in good health otherwise, so I would like to keep it that way. Thanks in advance for your input, I need to learn as much as fast as I can.

lewvino

Welcome to the forum and to
Welcome to the forum and to the club that no one wants to belong to! It sounds like your Cancer was found in an early stage so you should have good luck with which ever option you choose. I ended up having davinci surgery but did look into the Seed implants. I can not speak directly about Palladium verus iodine based. I do have one friend that had seed implants about 20 years ago and is doing great with no problems what so ever.

Just make sure and do your research and settle on what you think is best for you. All of the treatments have the same goal which is to get you cancer free.

Good luck.

Larry

Kongo

Seeds
Golf,

Sorry that you're having to go through this but as Larry indicated, it's a club and I'm sure you will find a lot of useful information to help you navigate the treatment maze available to PCa patients today.

Although I'm a bit older than you my pathology is similar. During my reserach on potential treatment options I looked closely at brachytherapy. As I recall, the relevant differences between the iodine and palladium isotopes has to do with the ability of the cells to absorb the radiation. Palladium is more readily absorbed than iodine (an older technique) so theoretically palladium is more likely to be absorbed in the prostate (and its cancer cells) than iodine and less likely to radiate to surrounding organs and tissue. This would likely translate to reduced incontinence and ED because less radiation would impact ED and incontinence. Interestingly, the uretha which passes through the center of the prostate, seems to be fairly resistant to ill effects from radiation.

As you probably know from your research, seeds frequently migrate and if one lays up against the wall of the colon you could end up with some downstream problems with your bowels.

You might also want to check out HD Brachy which uses a higher dosage but is temporary. They basically build a template that they put on the perineum and insert tiny radioactive rods into the prostate for temporary periods of time. Takes a couple of days in the hospital with your legs in in OBGYN stirrup but the long term results are excellent without the potential downside of seeds.

I personally chose Cyberknife as a treatment option after considering brachy, XBRT, surgery, protons, active surveillance, and some other radiosurgery techniques.

As Larry pointed out, your early stage pathology (what was your biopsy result with respect to positive cores, percent involvement, and so forth?) makes you an ideal candidate for a number of technologies that all offer long term success. Your stage also suggests that you have plenty of time to do the necessary research to figure out what is best for you.

Good luck