London: A gentler form of prostate cancer treatment that takes only 30 minutes has been devised by British surgeons.

The technique is just as effective as surgery but is cheaper and has fewer side effects, Daily Mail reported.

This means men are back on their feet and back at work sooner and are much less likely to suffer problems such as impotence and incontinence, the newspaper said.

The treatment, pioneered at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, is an advanced version of brachytherapy, a technique which has been used successfully for more than a decade.