Early Results Favorable For Five-Day Radiation Treatment Of Early-Stage Prostate Cancer

Preliminary results show that a shortened course of radiation therapy for prostate cancer called stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) provides good PSA response for early-stage prostate cancer and has the same side effects as other treatments, according to a March 15 study in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics, the official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). Study authors caution that further follow-up will be necessary to establish that SBRT is as effective in the long term as other proven treatments.

Radiation therapy is an effective way to treat localized prostate cancer. Proven successful treatments include brachytherapy (seed implants) where radiation sources are placed directly into the prostate and external beam radiation therapy where doctors give small daily doses of radiation to the prostate, five days a week, for eight weeks to give enough radiation to kill the cancer cells while sparing nearby healthy tissue.

source: ASTRO