Hospital da Luz Arrábida performed in December a surgery to a patient with prostate cancer, resorting for the first time in Portugal to the application of SpaceOAR hydrogel. This is an innovative surgical approach, which “helps to minimize the impact, at urinary, sexual and intestinal level, in the quality of life of patients with localized prostate cancer, that are to be submitted to radiotherapy treatments”, explains the urologist Nuno Tomada , who coordinated Urology in this surgery. How SpaceOAR works It uses a hydrogel based on polyethylene glycol; During surgery, this hydrogel is applied between the prostate and the rectum; The hydrogel then reduces the radiation reaching the rectum, during the radiotherapy sessions undertaken by the patient to treat the prostatic tumour; It is safe and allows higher security in radiotherapy treatments; Impeding the patient from being that much exposed to radiation during treatments, it reduces the impact and usual complications at urinary, sexual and intestinal level – thus providing a clear improvement in the quality of life.
