October 29th, 2010

Prostate Cancer Side Effects Minimized By Highly Targeted Radiation Technique.  Recent developments in the treatment of prostate cancer could minimize the side effects using highly targeted radiation treatment.

“With survivors living many years after treatment, it is very important to minimize gastrointestinal and urinary side effects to allow patients to live a full life after treatment,” Justin Bekelman, M.D., lead author of the study and a radiation oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, said. “We specifically looked at IMRT, given its potential to minimize radiation side effects and its higher cost compared to other treatments. Our study shows there is a benefit for men with prostate cancer to receive IMRT over conventional treatment in terms of gastrointestinal side effects. But there is no difference between the two treatments in terms of urinary side effects.”

The study involved will be discussed on November 1, 2010 at the 52nd Annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology.

Using IMRT, it’s possible to minimize the radiation experienced around healthy tissue near the tumor.  Receiving radiation treatment like this is painless, and is compared to getting an x-ray.

Using IMRT reduced proctitis and rectal bleeding, but did not appear to have significant differences in terms of cystitis and hematuria.