Seed-Implantation

“Seed Implantation” is a highly modern radiation therapy, which is administered to patients with a localized prostate cancer.

Placement of the seeds is performed under ultrasound guidance, and under local or general anesthesia. Up to 80 short-wave radioactive sources, so-called seeds, containing the isotopes, are inserted directly into the prostate. Needles preloaded with radioactive seeds, are inserted directly into the tumor, precisely at previously calculated areas. The needle devise is then removed, and the seeds remain permanently in order to develop their radiation effect to the prostate cancer. With the seeds in place, the tumor tissue is destroyed from the inside by highly dosed, targeted radiation.  

Quick and efficient:

- procedure is performed during a short-term hospital stay
- patient can leave the clinic no later than one day after the therapy
- procedure will last between 60 and 90 minutes
- correct positions of the seeds are checked four weeks after implantation
- PSA level will be determined quarterly.

Minimal side effects compared to radical surgery

For early stages of prostate cancer, the seed implantation is in its results equally successful to radical surgery, whereby it is minimally invasive. Within three years of the treatment, incontinence is almost never noted; erectile dysfunction generally affects between 10 and 30 percent of brachytherapy patients. This is significantly less than after a surgery. Erectile dysfunction is noted to not occur directly after treatment as is the case with surgical removal of the prostate, but rather develops gradually.