Stereotactic Radiation Potential Emerges In Prostate Cancer
With widespread use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening, a majority of newly diagnosed prostate cancers are confined to the organ and are typically treated with radical prostatectomy or radiotherapy.
An emerging radiotherapy option is stereotactic ablative radiosurgery (SABR), also called stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), in which multiple- focused radiation beams deliver a large ablative or destructive dose of radiation to a tumor target.
SABR, which is administered in far fewer but larger doses than conventional radiotherapy, has the potential to benefit a substantial proportion of patients with low-, intermediate-, and potentially even high-risk prostate cancers. While all patients are potentially eligible for radiation treatmenfigut, these shortened courses may be the treatment of choice for those who, due to comorbidities, are not candidates for surgery, or those who have difficulty meeting scheduling demands of traditional, longer-term radiotherapy.