Radiotherapy Treatment For Prostate Cancer

Author: Dr. Mark Alden

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. It affects over 200,000 men in the United States every year, and over one million worldwide. Despite the popularized idea of its being less aggressive, it is a leading cause of cancer death in men. And many can suffer from it, while dying of other causes. A man’s lifetime risk of developing prostate cancer is approximately 8%.

Fortunately, it can be detected early and cured in a very high percentage of men in whom it is found. For men diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer, they have many excellent choices of treatment, all with high cure rates. The cure rates are generally at or above 90% for those in the most favorable categories.

Radiotherapy is one of the excellent options. In the 21st century, it is both very simple and very complex. It is simple in that patients come in to the center, usually wait five to 10 minutes, walk into the treatment room, lie on the treatment table, FEEL NOTHING for the 10-to-12 minutes the beam is on, walk out, drive home or to work or to their favorite hobby. The process is repeated daily, Monday to Friday for a number of weeks. There are no restrictions on activities or favorite pursuits.

Radiotherapy is complex technologically. In its state-of-the-art form we use IMRT or Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy. This means that multiple beams are used, and each beam is made up of lots of little beams—like “pixels” — to create a highly 3D-shaped dose “cloud” around the targeted area. Each little “pixel” beam can be regulated from zero dose to full dose depending on what other organs it may pass through. In this way dose to sensitive organs can be minimized, and dose to the target maximized. This ability to get high doses into the cancer and keep the normal organs relatively lightly dosed has resulted in the high cure rates and low side effects of modern radiotherapy.