Advances in external beam radiotherapy for prostate cancer

Abstract

This article describes some of the advances that have been made in external beam radiotherapy techniques over recent years. These developments mean that modern radiotherapy to the prostate is now highly accurate, maximising the dose to the prostate target whilst minimising radiation to adjacent normal tissues.

Modern radiotherapy in the treatment of localized prostate cancer

“…Radiotherapy treatments require a careful balance between adequate therapeutic tumor doses but not causing irreparable damage to normal tissues. Known as the "therapeutic ratio", ongoing technological advances and research continue to develop techniques to maximise this balance [5,11].…”

“…IMRT uses dynamic multileaf collimators, which automatically and continuously adjust to the TV. This is achieved by subdividing each radiation beam into smaller beamlets and varying the individual intensities of these beamlets [5,11]. In the treatment of PC, IMRT uses five to seven beams which reduce the dose to adjacent structures.…”

“…Multidisciplinary approach in the treatment of PC includes radiotherapy (RT) as an important treatment modality in both localized and metastatic disease. It can be applied as a stand-alone method or in combination with other forms of treatment-surgery, or systemic therapy [5,6].…”

“…IMRT improves the conformity of the total dose delivered to the PTV (prostate and seminal vesicles) while reducing the dose to the risk organ -RO (rectum) compared to conformal radiotherapy. The dotted line represents the applied dose delivered to the PTV[5].…”