Healthy Living: Precision Prostate Cancer Treatment - Northern Michigan's News Leader

New treatments are helping men with prostate cancer live longer... But can still cause embarrassing side effects. Now, as Robyn Haines reports - a new type of guided radiation is making life easier.

When Rick Dancer was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year, he was determined not to let it affect his lifestyle.

Rick tried a new radiation system - called the Calypso. It works like a GPS-- tracking the prostate's location during the entire treatment. The prostate's considered a moving target during radiation because it changes position when the bladder and rectum are empty or full. With the Calypso, doctors know exactly where the prostate is. 

Three tiny transponders are implanted in the patient's prostate. They emit radio-waves that allow doctors to track exactly where the prostate is... at any given time, in real time. The system is so precise the beams only hit the prostate, sparing surrounding organs. Studies show it reduces gastro-intestinal side effects and doctors expect it could reduce sexual side effects too. 

The new system allows doctors to know where the prostate is within one-millimeter throughout the entire treatment. So far, it's been used on about six-thousand patients in the U.S.