Prostate cancer has been haunting millions of men around the world. A new technique makes it possible for a patient to undergo a radiotherapy with lower risks of toxicity by means of an FDA-approved hydrogel.
Even if the prostate cancer is treated, the long-term side effects may linger on a person for lengths of time - even lasting a lifetime. In order to prevent this from happening, Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, Michigan use the SpaceOAR Hydrogel System, UpNorthLive reports.
Radiation oncologist, Douglass Brown says that many men wouldn't need to have treatments for early stages of cancer. However, if it needs to be treated, the procedures could be aggressive that side effects are inevitable. But with the use of the hydrogel, prostate cancer can be have higher cure rate with less consequences.
As the SpaceOAR Hydrogel applies, the OAR stands for "organs at risk," because whenever the prostate needs to undergo therapy, it can also affect other organs like the rectal wall. High dose radiation treatments for prostate cancer could be detrimental for other healthy organs. It may cause injury on the bowel range, urinary or sexual symptoms. The hydrogel may remain stable for up to three months, and will then liquefy afterwards leaving no recesses after the radiation treatment.
With this in mind, the hydrogel will be injected between the rectal wall and the prostate, that whenever radio therapies take place, the organs beyond the hydrogel will be protected. This proves to be a brilliant solution, as prostate cancer patients may need to undergo radiation therapies for five days a week for eight weeks and beyond.
The company behind the SpaceOAR Hydrogel is Augmenix, Inc, a med-tech company. The hydrogel is now being used by leading centers dealing with prostate cancer in the United States. Soon the technology may be extended for other cancer treatments as well, according to VentureBeat.
