A prospective randomized comparison of stranded vs. loose 125I seeds for prostate brachytherapy.

Purpose: To compare seed loss and dosimetric parameters between stranded and loose 125I seeds (LS) for prostate brachytherapy.

Methods And Materials: Sixty-four patients with 1997 American Joint Commission on Cancer (AJCC) clinical stage T1c or T2a prostate carcinoma were prospectively randomized to brachytherapy (144Gy) with RAPID Strand 125I seeds (RS) vs. LS (Oncura, Plymouth Meeting, PA) The treatment plan for each patient was devised before randomization, and was not modified based on the randomization.