Hypofractionation for prostate cancer.

ABSTRACT: Hypofractionation for prostate cancer was originally carried out in the pursuit of efficiency and convenience but has now attracted greatly renewed interest based upon a hypothesis that prostate cancers have a higher sensitivity to fraction size, reflected in a low alpha/beta ratio, than do late responding organs at risk such as the rectum or bladder. Tumor control and acceptable toxicity outcomes from several hypofractionation or brachytherapy analyses do in fact support an alpha/beta ratio for prostate cancer that is low, perhaps even lower that that for the normal organs that ordinarily constrain the delivery of radiation therapy. However, many of these studies lack sufficient patient numbers and follow-up, are clouded by dose inhomogeneity issues in the case of brachytherapy, or delive

SUBMITTER: Ritter M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3039916 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan-Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature