Prostate cancer patients with low-risk tumors may be able to undergo a shortened course of radiation therapy without sacrificing the outcome or their quality of life, a new study says.
Low-risk prostate cancer patients are that whose disease is confined to their prostates and have other indications that show there is less chance that their tumors will spread.
There are many options available for such patients, including active surveillance (monitoring) or treatment with surgery or radiation.
Patients who opt for radiation must undergo a lengthy treatment course, so researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit decided to look at what impact using hypofractionated radiation, which is done over a shorter period, would have on patient outcome and quality of life.
Conventional radiation is given in 40 – 45 sessions over the course of about eight to nine weeks, while hypofractionated radiation therapy is administered in 28 sessions over five to six weeks. Hypofractionated radiation uses the same amount of as the conventional type but divides them into fewer, but higher, doses.
Researchers studied 1,092 men with low risk prostate cancer, and decided to look at the result if they were treated with conventional or hypofractionated radiation.
The study found that patients treated with hypofractionated radiation therapy had the same urinary and sexual quality of life compared to those who had traditional radiation therapy.
The only difference in quality of life was a small, but significantly larger decline in bowel quality of life after hypofractionated radiation compared to those who had traditional radiation therapy. This small difference, though, was not felt to be clinically meaningful, the researchers say.
The study was presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) 58th Annual Meeting in Boston.