The Hindu Business Line : Simple, cost-effective treatment for prostate cancer

For the ageing men, confronted with problems of the prostate gland, especially the degenerative cancer, there is hope in the offing from the medical world.

A less painful, low-cost, radiation pellet treatment, promises to substantially improve cure rates of prostate cancer, according to Dr Nori Dattatreyudu, a well known US-based, global cancer expert.

Simple procedure

By a simple one-hour procedure, a minute pellet is implanted into the patient’s prostate gland. After just a day’s hospitalisation, he can resume work. In a month, the radiation dose is released by the pellet to effectively kill the cancerous cells, he explained.

The Caesium 131 pellet, has got the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) approval and has been used in the US for the last couple of years, with very good results, Dr Dattatreyudu, an Indian-origin doctor, who is the Chairman, Radiation Oncology Department of the New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, said.

The traditional alternatives to this procedure called Brachytherapy, are the surgical removal of the prostate or use of radiation beam, both of which have significant side effects.

They are cumbersome and also expensive, Dr Dattatreyudu told Business Line here recently.

Implant technique

The pellet implant technique costs about $10,000 in the US in comparison to the radiation beam which is over $50,000 and surgery still higher. In India, the pellet treatment can be substantially lower, Dr Dattatreyudu said.

To benefit patients in India, the pellets could be made within the country or imported. Dr Dattatreyudu made a detailed presentation of the technique to doctors at a recent international oncology meet organised by the Indo-American Cancer Centre.

Dr Dattatreyudu, considered a pioneer in Brachytherapy said Palladium 103 and Iridium 25 are two other pellet options, which take longer times of 150 and 250 days to discharge the radiation.

Reversal in detection

In the US, the incidence of prostate cancer is close to 2.5 lakh per year.

With the developments in medicine, the detection rates have virtually seen a reversal. From two thirds of the cases being detected in advanced stage 15 years ago to the same number detected in early stage now. Therefore, the success rates of cure has gone up, he said.

In the US private companies make the pellet and the use of the treatment mode is growing.

In the Indian context, use of any radiation method or material needs to get clearance from the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).

The pellet implant procedure has brought down the side effects of incontinence (uncontrolled urine flow) to less than one percent (30 per cent in other methods) and lowered instance of impotence (which was 60-70 per cent in other methods), he claimed.