Prostate cancer will affect one in six men in his lifetime. In Latin America, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization, prostate cancer has an annual incidence of 54.2.
According to the WHO Global Cancer Observatory (GCO), 2,296 deaths from prostate cancer were recorded in Chile in 2020 alone, almost double the deaths from breast cancer in women. In the Region of the Americas, the types of cancer most frequently diagnosed in men are: prostate (8.6%), lung (11.7%), colorectal (10.2%), and bladder (5.9%). ).
The types of cancer with the highest mortality rates in men are: lung (20.6%), prostate (14.5%), colorectal (10.6%), pancreas (7.0%), and liver ( 6.6%). That is why any advance in science and technology to deal with this situation is qualified as a beacon of hope.
Innovative treatments from the hand of the seeds
And despite the fact that there are advances in the treatment of this type of cancer, it is necessary to continue promoting preventive examination, because it is a disease that does not present symptoms and that with the aging of the population becomes more frequent. The improvements in diagnoses and the advancement of science help to improve the expectations of leading a normal life if the cancer is treated on time.
The treatment that has had the most positive effects over time is prostate brachytherapy or radioactive seeds, which is a modality of radiotherapy that involves placing radioactive sources in the prostate gland, where the radiation can kill cancer cells and cause less tissue damage. healthy close.
Benefits of the technique
The great benefits of this technique is that, unlike external radiotherapy, which is performed in 35 daily sessions from Monday to Friday, Brachytherapy is performed in a single session. The fall in radiation dose outside the prostate is rapid, so the surrounding tissues receive little or no dose of radiotherapy.
In addition, surgery presents a probability of sexual impotence between 50 and 70% and urinary incontinence for at least 2-3 months, unlike brachytherapy, which presents an incidence of sexual impotence of less than 5% and absence of urinary incontinence.
“One of the great points in favor of this treatment is that the patient’s incorporation into his normal life is very fast, which, depending on the activity he develops, ranges from a few hours to a few days. Another point is that it is an outpatient procedure, while surgery requires hospitalization from 2 to 5 days”, says Felipe Balbontín, Urologist and President of the Chilean Corporation against Prostate Cancer.
Access in Latin America
In Chile, treatment is currently available in the GES (Explicit Health Guarantees), making it more accessible to patients.
“The GES in Chile raised the levels of available treatments, delivering minimally invasive therapies such as radioactive seeds. The problem is that these possibilities are not available throughout the country, nor are they known by the entire medical world, therefore, the call is to be able to continue disseminating these types of alternatives to achieve better results in the face of this disease.” says Balbontin.
prevention is everything
Symptoms of the disease can take a long time, even years, to manifest. In general, after a while, the cancer can cause alterations in the function of urinating (inability to urinate, urinate very frequently, feel pain or suffer from incontinence).
Along with these symptoms, the patient may experience frequent lower back pain, have a problematic sex life, and even pass blood in the urine or semen. However, these physical alterations do not always imply the existence of cancer. It is always advisable to consult a professional before the slightest doubt.