2016_BT PROSTATE CANCER COURSE BOOK

ESTRO Teaching Course on

BRACHYTHERAPY FOR PROSTATE CANCER

Introduction

Welcome to the beautiful city of Brussels for the 16

ESTRO Prostate Brachytherapy

Course.

Over the last few years more and more younger men have been diagnosed with

localised potentially curable prostate cancer. While radical prostatectomy remains the

gold standard for treatment in many countries, there is an increasing interest in the

role of brachytherapy which proves a much simpler alternative and achieves similar

outcomes with less risk of severe side effects. Several thousand patients now have

the treatment each year in Europe.

Prostate brachytherapy is not something that can be taken up by a solitary

enthusiast. It requires a significant amount of team work and there needs to be

careful attention to patient selection, techniques of implantation and quality

assurance to ensure that optimum outcomes can be achieved. A very experienced

teaching staff in all aspects of both HDR and LDR Brachytherapy will be present at

the meeting and will be happy for you to ask questions both during or after the

lectures. Please make use of their expertise.

We hope that the teaching course will provide a foundation to begin the steep

learning curve towards the achievement of consistent high quality implants and that

more patients will have the option to choose this form of treatment.

On behalf of the teaching staff,

Peter Hoskin,

Course Director