In the last decades the status of radiotherapy was tremendously increased in terms of conformity to the target as well as image-guided techniques in conjunction with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT).
The technological improvement had a significant clinical outcome for better response and lower toxicity to the surrounding normal tissues. Nowadays the incidence of rectal toxicity has been significantly decreased, especially with image guided radiation therapy (IGRT), whereas the dose escalation to the prostate has driven the clinical practice to the fact that radical radiotherapy for low or intermediate risk prostate cancer is definitely equivalent to surgery. The treatment volume can be reduced by reducing the size of the necessary margins to count for inaccuracies in target position and patient setup. This can be achieved either by improving the daily localization of the target before treatment or by adapting the treatment in response to feedback. This is the goal of image-guided and adaptive radiotherapy, respectively. These techniques improve the accuracy of dose delivery with a significant impact on clinical outcome and toxicity.
Written by:
Kalogeridi MA, Kyrgias G, Zygogianni A, Kouvaris J, Theodorou K, Kelekis N, Kouloulias V. Are you the author?
Department of Radiotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Thessaly, Greece; First Department of Radiology, Radiotherapy Unit, Medical School, Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece; Second Department of Radiology, Radiotherapy Unit, Medical School, Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece; Second Department of Radiology, Radiotherapy Unit, Medical School, Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
Reference: Urol J. 2014 Nov 30;11(6):1925-31.
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 25433469