2016_BT PROSTATE CANCER COURSE BOOK

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