16
th
ESTRO Teaching Course on
BRACHYTHERAPY FOR PROSTATE CANCER
Introduction
Welcome to the beautiful city of Brussels for the 16
th
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