Doctors perform 'pinhole' surgery on prostate cancer patients

Doctors at the Medanta Cancer Institute here have achieved a "high degree of success" while undertaking India's first permanent seed implant surgery for the treatment of early-stage prostate cancer.
In the "pinhole" surgery, radioactive Iodine-125 seeds are permanently embedded. These are low "attenuating" (intensity) and do not pose any risk to the family members of the patient, and which become biologically inert after ten months, according to a press release by the hospital today.
"This pinhole procedure called as low dose rate brachytherapy or permanent brachytherapy uses implants that are about the size of a grain of rice and are inserted directly into the tumour with the help of thin hollow needles," Dr Tejinder Kataria, Chairperson, Division of Radiation Oncology at Medanta Cancer Institute, said.

These implants are left in place after the radiation has been used up and their small size causes little or no discomfort, he said.
"This kind of intervention for localised prostate cancer has never been tried before in India and Medanta Cancer Institute has taken the lead in implementing this initiative with a high degree of success," Kataria said.
The procedure allows treatment time to be reduced to maximum one day instead of the previously required eight weeks of radiation therapy.
Early-stage patients whose cancer is contained within the prostate respond best to this type of procedure, the release said.