Prostate Brachytherapy Made Complicated

A detailed, easy-to-read guide for physicians, attorneys and savvy patients

Prostate brachytherapy (transperineal interstitial implantation of the prostate with either permanent or temporary radioactive sources) has evolved into a sophisticated and definitive treatment modality, used either as monotherapy or in combination with external beam radiation therapy for the treatment of prostate cancer. This popular form of therapy is frequently integrated with neoadjuvant and/or concurrent androgen suppression therapy in the intermediate and advanced risk patient. This book covers both basic and advanced techniques for prostate brachytherapy and is appropriate for the practitioner who is anticipating or currently performing permanent radioactive seed implants. A partial list of topics includes: patient selection, equipment decisions, treatment planning, operative technique, post-implant evaluation, management of acute/long term treatment and follow-up after implant. The accompanying CD-ROM, with video clips, is an invaluable teaching tool. Basic and Advanced Techniques in Prostate Brachytherapy is for practitioners of prostate brachytherapy-urologists, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists and medical physicists.

Advanced Therapy of Prostate Disease, from the inital to post-surgical psychological concerns, this book is a complete guide to every step of prostate disease treatment. First, it describes the physical exam in detail, as well as laboratory and imaging techniques that can confirm a diagnosis. Then, the pros and cons of treatment methods for every type and variation of prostate cancer and benign conditions are discussed. Post-surgical treatment (including behavioral issues) is also outlined.

Although much progress has been made in the four years since the first edition of Management of Prostate Cancer, prostate cancer remains a significant biological, me- cal, and personal challenge for millions of men. In this interval, some important trends and observations have emerged that represent real progress in the field and which will shape the direction of clinical practice and research in the next 5–10 years. These obs- vations include: (1) a decline in prostate-related cancer mortality in the United States, likely owing to a combination of factors including screening, more aggressive and earlier therapy, and improvements in specific therapies; (2) a significant downward pathological stage migration, so that an individual’s chance of cure for a given stage, grade, and PSA is better now than it was early in the PSA era, even without associated improvements in individual therapies; (3) the recognition of new PSA isoforms that may refine screening strategies; (4) several randomized, phase III clinical trials demonstrating survival adv- tages of one form of therapy over another in selected populations (external beam rad- therapy with adjuvant hormones vs radiotherapy alone, radical prostatectomy vs observation); (5) a focus on the biology of bone and bone metastasis, and new agents that reduce skeletal-related events and which may inhibit the growth of new metastases; (6) second-generation anti-PSMA antibodies with improved potential for imaging and therapy; (7) the development and widespread adoption of nomograms that assist in cli- cal decision-making for individual patients; (8) the identification of new genes that

Prominent physicians review past, current, and future applications of the many powerful imaging techniques now used in the diagnosis, staging, treatment, and outcomes assessment of cancers of the prostate, central nervous system (CNS), and breast. Topics range from the use of screening mammography and approaches to breast cancer detection using MRI to improved visualization of the prostate gland from transrectal ultrasound and MRI, to MRI-guided resection of neoplasms.

The 11th International Conference on Medical Imaging and Computer Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2008, was held at the Helen and Martin Kimmel Center of New York University, New York City, USA on September 6–10, 2008. MICCAI is the premier international conference in this domain, with - depth papers on the multidisciplinary ?elds of biomedical image computing and analysis, computer assisted intervention and medical robotics. The conference brings together biological scientists, clinicians, computer scientists, engineers, mathematicians, physicists and other interested researchers and o?ers them a forum to exchange ideas in these exciting and rapidly growing ?elds. The conference is both very selective and very attractive: this year we - ceived a record number of 700 submissions from 34 countries and 6 continents, fromwhich258papers were selectedfor publication,whichcorrespondsto a s- cess rate of approximately 36%. Some interesting facts about the distribution of submitted and accepted papers are shown graphically at the end of this preface. The paper selection process this year was based on the following procedure, which included the introduction of several novelties over previous years. 1. A ProgramCommittee (PC) of 49 members was recruited by the Program Chairs,to getthenecessarybody ofexpertiseandgeographicalcoverage.All PC members agreed in advance to participate in the ?nal paper selection process. 2. Key words grouped in 7 categories were used to describe the content of the submissions and the expertise of the reviewers.