New Zealand prostate cancer patients have been the first in the Southern Hemisphere to receive the latest development in brachytherapy, a minimally invasive treatment for prostate cancer. Two patients at Southern Cross Brightside Hospital in Auckland received the new "ThinStrand" treatment on January 22, 2009. ThinStrand involves permanent implantation of tiny radioactive 'seeds' directly into the prostate gland. Brightside Hospital Oncologist Dr James Matthews says that a recent analysis of their patients had shown a very low recurrence rate of 6% at eight years; similar cure rates to prostate surgery but with fewer cases of impotence or urinary incontinence. Because the new technology uses significantly smaller 'seeds' than previously used in brachytherapy, thinner needles are needed for implantation. “The thinner needles make the procedure even less invasive," says Dr Matthews, “and there is a study in Seattle looking at whether the thinner needles will reduce the chance of urinary symptoms and impotence.” The Seattle study, says a media release from the Prostate Cancer Foundation, showed less pain and tenderness in the initial period after the implant, as well as an improved, higher radiation dose in the prostate. President of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, Barry Young, says it is now just over 10 years since the first brachytherapy procedures to treat prostate cancer were used in New Zealand.