Needle displacement during high-dose-rate afterloading brachytherapy boost and conventional external beam radiation therapy for initial and local advanced prostate cancer.

PURPOSE: To determine the displacement of needles (ND) and its impact in the outcome of initial and locally advanced prostate cancer treated with conventional external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) and fractionated transrectal ultrasound-guided high-dose-rate afterloading brachytherapy (HDR-BT) as a boost. METHODS AND MATERIALS: From 03/97 to 08/98 a total of 47 patients were eligible for study entry. Patients with 1992 AJCC clinical stage T3a or less and prostatic volume