Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer: How Far We’ve Come

The world of prostate cancer treatment has come quite a long way in recent years. The treatment methods used a decade ago are as antiquated as a VHS tape, and today’s patients are privy to state-of-the-art procedures that are both precise and effective. The realm of radiation therapy, for instance, now harnesses breakthrough technologies and techniques that pinpoint the exact location of the tumor, thereby ensuring effective treatment while minimizing side effects.

Overcoming the Ghosts of Treatments Past

“There’s a prevalent apprehension among men who come in for consultations,” a doctor from Oxford, FL explains. “They reference friends who underwent radiation therapy 10 or 15 years ago, recalling grim experiences, filled with adverse side effects. They presume that their fate would be similar if they opt for radiation therapy.”

Rest assured, the last decade has witnessed immense strides in this field, including impressive breakthroughs that allow for more precise targeting of the tumor with minimal collateral damage to surrounding tissues.

Image-guided Radiation Therapy: A Window to Accuracy

A critical innovation that has revolutionized radiation therapy is the advent of image-guided radiation therapy. This game-changing technology comes in two forms: the Fiducial Marker System and the Cone Beam CT (CBCT).

In the Fiducial Marker System, small markers are implanted into the tumor to guide the radiation therapy. An X-ray is then performed immediately before each treatment session to align the radiation precisely with the markers.

With CBCT, on the other hand, the treatment machine has mounted arms that rotate around the patient to perform a quick CT scan. This scan is then layered over the original CT scan to provide pin-point accuracy of one to two millimeters to the target area.

IMRT: The Future of Prostate Cancer Treatment

Another marvel in prostate cancer treatment is Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT). IMRT utilizes 120 ‘fingers’ inside the machine that move independently, modulating and shaping the radiation dose based on the specific contouring of the patient’s prostate.

As the machine rotates around the patient, it delivers the radiation in an incredibly precise manner, minimizing the dose to surrounding organs and tissues while zapping the target area with an optimal radiation dose.

Bigger Strides, Better Treatments

Thanks to these technological advancements, what was once a frightening treatment with debilitating side effects has transformed into a precise, safe, and efficient regimen. The strides made in radiation therapy for prostate cancer are not only encouraging; they are life-changing.

Advanced Urology Institute: Leading Prostate Cancer Care in Florida

When it comes to harnessing these cutting-edge procedures, the Advanced Urology Institute, the largest urology practice in Florida, leads the way. We offer comprehensive treatments for prostate cancer, including the latest in radiation therapies.

At Advanced Urology Institute, we understand the importance of precise, highly-advanced treatment for our patients. We are committed to offering state-of-the-art care with the utmost compassion, ensuring the best possible outcomes. Visit us in Oxford, FL, and see first-hand how far prostate cancer treatment has evolved.

References:

• “Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer.” 13 Feb. 2023, https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/prostate-cancer/treating/radiation-therapy.html.
• “Image-Guided, Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IG-IMRT) to ….” https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/patient-education/intensity-modulated-radiation-therapy-prostate.
• “IGRT – Image-Guided Radiation Therapy – RadiologyInfo.org.” https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info/igrt.

Transcription:

One of the things that I often hear from patients when they come in for a consultation is, ‘Hey, my buddy had radiation therapy 10 or 15 years ago and it was not a good experience for them. So I’m kind of expecting if I choose radiation therapy, I’ll have some of those side effects and go through those same processes.’

And so, I tell them that within that time period, the past 10 years or so, there have been a couple of breakthroughs that have allowed us to more accurately and precisely locate the target and treat the target, avoiding some of those side effects that would have happened 10 years ago.

One of those technologies is what we call image-guided radiation therapy. So there’s two different parts to it, or types of image-guided radiation therapy.

We can implant fiducial markers in the target and line up to those markers each time we treat the patient by doing an x-ray immediately prior to the treatment. Or, we can do what’s called a Cone Beam CT, or CBCT. In that process, we have arms that are mounted to the treatment machine that actually rotate around the patient to perform a quick CT scan. We layer that daily CT scan to the original CT scan and use that to line up to within one to two millimeters of the target.

As for IMRT, there’s about 120 different little fingers inside the machine where the radiation passes out as it comes to the patient. The finger positioning is determined by the contouring that we did with the patient and saying, ‘Hey, this is our target. This is not our target. This is where we want dose. This is where we don’t want dose.’

So, as the machine rotates around the patient, those fingers move independently to modulate and shape the dose depending on the constraints that we gave the tissues that are inside the pelvis that we contoured.

Those two technologies allow us to accurately find the target and line up to it every day and also deliver the treatment in an accurate fashion. That allows a larger, more complete dose to the target and lower the dose to the surrounding organs and tissues.