Frequently asked questions

About Gold Anchor Marker

A gold fiducial marker is a tiny implant, pre-loaded inside a needle. One or several markers are implanted inside the prostate. The markers are easy to see on many imaging modalities and help pinpoint the location of the prostate with greater accuracy.

Gold Anchor is a soft-tissue marker—also known as a fiducial marker or medical implant—used to radiographically mark soft tissue for future therapeutic procedures. Its most common application is in radiotherapy, where the marker helps clinicians accurately localize and track the treatment area.

The product consists of a thin anesthesia-sized needle pre-loaded with a uniquely designed marker. Gold Anchor was invented by Dr. Ingemar Naslund while he was Head of the Division of Radiotherapy at the Karolinska University Hospital, read more here.

Fiducial markers are used as reference points for both radiotherapy planning and each radiotherapy treatment session. They increase treatment precision and help avoid unnecessary irradiation of healthy tissue.

Fiducial markers have been proven to increase the accuracy of radiotherapy treatments, reducing side effects and improving outcomes. Read more here.

There are three main benefits of Gold Anchor in comparison with other fiducial markers:

  1. A very thin needle is used for implantation of the Gold Anchor marker. This reduces pain, risk of infection and risk of bleeding.
  2. The patented marker design ensures immediate stabilization of the Gold Anchor in the tissue minimizing marker migration. This enables a shorter lead time between implantation and treatment planning.
  3. Gold Anchor is made of a unique and patented alloy of pure gold mixed with a very small amount of pure iron. This enhances the markers visibility on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) used for treatment planning.

Read more here.

Gold Anchor is mainly used to increase precision in radiotherapy treatments of soft-tissue tumors. The marker can also be used as a reference point for surgical and ablative procedures and to mark biopsy sites for future treatments.

Gold Anchor is approved for use in soft tissue and can be implanted almost anywhere, except in the heart, large blood vessels, eyes, brain, spinal cord, or other standard exclusionary anatomy for implantable markers.

Typical organs include the prostate, liver, lung, pancreas, cervix, esophagus, rectum and breast.

Yes. Many clinical publications support the use of Gold Anchor, we have collected some of them here.

Implanting the Gold Anchor Marker

Yes. The Gold Anchor marker can be transferred into thin 22G endoscopic needles for placement for example in pancreas, rectal wall, and central lung. The Gold Anchor Introducer device is described in more detail here.

The Gold Anchor marker is implanted using image guidance, typically ultrasound or computer tomography (CT). The procedure is similar to a biopsy; however, Gold Anchor uses a thin needle, and the marker remains in the body.

Yes. Gold Anchor can be used for any radiotherapy or proton therapy as long as the treatment equipment uses kV-imaging (x-ray) to detect the fiducial markers. Today, nearly all modern radiotherapy systems employ kV-imaging for this purpose, making Gold Anchor broadly compatible across treatment platforms.

Implantation is typically performed either in a doctor’s office or in an operating or CT room. Time depends on the organ and imaging method.

For prostate implants, inserting the ultrasound transducer, deploying the markers, and then removing the transducer typically takes between 5 and 15 minutes.

About the procedure

Your healthcare provider will ensure you are correctly prepared and informed about the procedure, including any medications required before, during, and after. Talk to your doctor about antibiotics and how to manage anticoagulant medications if applicable.

Given the thin needles used, most patients report very little pain or discomfort. Because the needles are the same size as those used for local anesthesia, anesthesia is typically not required as it likely hurts more to deploy the anesthesia than to deploy the Gold Anchor markers.

You should be able to return to normal activities directly after implantation. Your doctor can tell you if there are any specific activities that you should avoid.

The Gold Anchor marker is permanent and remains in the body, except when it is used to guide surgical procedures, in which case it may be removed.

As with any medical treatment, there are some risks involved with the use of Gold Anchor. Possible complications include but are not limited to implantation-related pain, bleeding, infection, pneumothorax and marker migration.

Yes. Gold Anchor markers are MRI-compatible and do not, by themselves, contraindicate MRI examination.

No. Gold Anchor markers are very small and will not be detected during routine security screening.