Objectives: To assess our initial experience in the treatment of localized prostate cancer using low-dose-rate brachytherapy (LDR-brachytherapy) with iodine-125.
Methods: One-hundred consecutive patients received LDR-brachytherapy between July 2004 and October 2006. Seventy-six patients were treated with seed implantation alone, whereas 24 patients were treated with a combination of brachytherapy and external beam radiotherapy. The minimal percentage of the dose received by 90% of the prostate gland (%D90), the percentage prostate volume receiving 100% of the prescribed minimal peripheral dose (V100), and the operation time were compared among every 10 consecutive patients.
Results: The means of %D90 and V100 were 109.6% and 93.4%, respectively. When compared with the first 10 patients, both D90 and V100 showed significant improvement in the following 10 consecutive patients. Similarly, the mean operation time decreased significantly according to the accumulated number of patients.
Conclusions: Our initial experience with the first 100 cases suggests that LDR-brachytherapy needs accumulation of many more patients to obtain high-quality post-implant dosimetric outcomes.