AUTHOR=Nguyen Nam P. , Davis Rick , Bose Satya R. , Dutta Suresh , Vinh-Hung Vincent , Chi Alexander , Godinez Juan , Desai Anand , Woods William , Altdorfer Gabor , D’Andrea Mark , Karlsson Ulf , Vo Richard A. , Sroka Thomas , the International Geriatric Radiotherapy Group TITLE=Potential Applications of Image-Guided Radiotherapy for Radiation Dose Escalation in Patients with Early Stage High-Risk Prostate Cancer JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology VOLUME=5 YEAR=2015 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2015.00018 DOI=10.3389/fonc.2015.00018 ISSN=2234-943X ABSTRACT=

Patients with early stage high-risk prostate cancer (prostate specific antigen > 20, Gleason score > 7) are at high risk of recurrence following prostate cancer irradiation. Radiation dose escalation to the prostate may improve biochemical-free survival for these patients. However, high rectal and bladder dose with conventional three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy may lead to excessive gastrointestinal and genitourinary toxicity. Image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT), by virtue of combining the steep dose gradient of intensity-modulated radiotherapy and daily pretreatment imaging, may allow for radiation dose escalation and decreased treatment morbidity. Reduced treatment time is feasible with hypo-fractionated IGRT and it may improve patient quality of life.