Recent advances in radiation treatment allow doctors to increase the amount of radiation delivered to the prostate without increasing damage to surrounding healthy tissue. This method of treatment is called Conformal Radiation.
The purpose of Conformal Radiation is to increase the amount of radiation given to the prostate while reducing the damage to surrounding healthy tissue.
Three small gold seeds are implanted in the prostate in a procedure similar to a Trans Rectal Ultrasound (TRUS) with biopsy (see Diagnosis).
This is the newest method for giving conformal radiotherapy. The radiation beams are broken up into hundreds of tiny "beamlets" which are individually directed to the prostate under the control of powerful computers. When IMRT is combined with a new radiation treatment planning system called "inverse planning", it provides radiation oncologists with a new tool of unequalled accuracy for delivering the radiation to the prostate, and away from the bladder and rectum.
