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5-day radiation for prostate cancer works

Posted on: Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 18:02 CDT

A shortened course of radiation therapy for prostate cancer called stereotactic body radiation therapy gets good response, U.S. researchers said.

However, study author Dr. Christopher King of Stanford University School of Medicine cautions that further follow-up is necessary to establish that SBRT is as effective in the long term as other proven treatments.

External beam radiation therapy can be a very effective and minimally invasive treatment for, however, it typically lasts five days a week, for eight weeks, which can be burdensome for some patients.

For SBRT, radiation oncologists give a higher dose of radiation every day for five days.

The researchers treated 41 men with low-risk prostate cancer with SBRT and after a median follow-up of 33 months, no man in the study has seen his cancer return.

Men in the study reported side effects, including urinary and rectal problems that were no better or worse than with other prostate cancer radiation treatments.

These early results are very promising for men with early-stage prostate cancer, King said in a statement. However, it can often take as long as 10 years to see late side effects and recurrences, so we will have to monitor these men closely and cautiously pursue these treatments further before we can confidently say that SBRT is as good as other proven prostate cancer treatments.

The findings are published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics.

Source: United Press International

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