The fight against deadly diseases such as cancer seems to be a futile effort for most of us and apparently, after all these years of continuous research studies no radical changes or discoveries in the treatment field have been announced. It’s a pessimistic point of view because those studies are still being conducted and even if not many of the important things related to cancer are well known, the basic information allowed the discovery of various treatments such as the radiation therapy.

The cancer can affect certain parts of the body such as the lungs or the prostate gland; this gland is specific to the male reproductive system, located in the region of the genitals and responsible with the making of the seminal fluid. It is important to know that any hormone problems can gravely affect the normal functions of the prostate, not to mention the whole organism so after the age of forty, prevention is highly recommended.

Usually the cancer of prostate, in its early stages, has no early symptoms and even if some signs similar with the ones associated with cancer are noticed we can not exactly say that this disease is responsible for them, well, not after the results of the screening tests. These tests are recommended to be done at regular periods of time, especially after the age of forty and after interpreting the obtained results the medical specialists will decide whether the medical investigation should continue or not. If any abnormality is indicated by the screenings than the prostate biopsy is necessary to make a correct diagnose.

The determined features are very important, especially for prescribing the correct form of treatment. The chances of survival will increase at ninety eight percent and for a period of at least five years if the cancer is diagnosed in the early stage and if the patient responds well to the treatment, this disease can even be cured.

Usually for the advanced cancer treatments such as the hormone therapy or the radiation treatment for the prostate cancer, either being the brachytherapy method or the external proton beam radiation procedure, are recommended; for the organ-confined cancer the best treatment will have to be surgery, also known as prostatectomy, complemented with the used of the alternative treatment or powerful drugs.

The radiation treatment has the advantage of damaging the internal structures of the cancerous cells, especially its DNA, preventing their multiplication and in its early history this medical procedures consisted in the use of intraprostatic radium implants.

The radiation treatment basically consists of two different methods of using the radiation benefits: the internal radiation, known as brachytherapy, is done by inserting radioactive seeds, the size of a grain of rice, into the infected gland and leave them there to decay and slowly kill the cancer cells while the external therapy uses the radiation beams, similar in effect with the x-rays, to damage the infected tissue parts.

The brachytherapy name comes from the greek word “brachy”, translated as “short-distanced”, and is a procedure discovered in the early 1900’s by Henri-Alexandre Danlos and Pierre Curie after doing a little experiment and obtaining results such as the shrinkage of the tumors.

In the United States, more precisely at St. Luke’s Memorial Hospital in New York, Robert Abbe developed new medical application techniques involving the brachytherapy treatment for the cancer, which were officially adopted by the medical community only in 1983.

The brachytherapy method of treatment for the prostate cancer is categorized depending on the duration of the radiation dose delivered so that the tumor can be treated, being temporary of permanent, the rate or intensity of the radiation dose, being low-rate, medium or high-dose rate and the placement of the radiation sources on the infected area.

The common side-effects of brachytherapy are urinary retention, painful urination or dysuria, rectal bleeding, diarrhea or constipation, urinary incontinent and sometimes impotence; these symptoms can last temporarily or be permanent. In the internal beam radiation case the inserted radioactive seeds can travel into the urethra and bladder, being eventually passed in the urine or the seminal liquid.

The radiation treatment is not effective in all situations so it could be replaced by the other remaining treatment alternative; the most important thing is to always ask for more details about each treatment therapy and choose the right one for your type of cancer, not being forgetful about the doctors’ advice.