| If this is not your name, click here. | | |
| | Contact Us | Order Now | Journals | Bookstore | Register a colleague | | |
| | | ![]() Image-Guided Radiation Therapy Improves Outcomes for Obese Prostate Cancer Patients FAIRFAX, Va -- September 2, 2009 -- Moderately to severely obese patients with prostate cancer may have improved treatment outcomes when treated with image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) over traditional external beam radiation therapy (EBRT). The study published in the September 1 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics showed that because IGRT improves treatment outcomes because it corrects for prostate shifts, which, if not planned for, can lead to incorrect doses of radiation to the disease site, according to Several studies have suggested that obesity can lead to higher rates of clinical recurrence or biochemical failure rates in prostate cancer patients receiving EBRT. Researchers from the Carol G. Simon Cancer Center, Morristown Memorial Hospital, Morristown, New Jersey, and the Uematsu-Atsuchi-Serendipity Oncology Center in Terukuni, Kagoshima, Japan, sought to determine if these failure rates were caused by the treatment modality used rather than strictly the fact that the patients were obese. Researchers found that moderately to severely obese patients with prostate cancer (body mass index > 35) do have larger prostate shifts during treatment, which can lead to radiation treatments not being delivered to the same spot every day, potentially compromising the treatment. The percentage of moderately to severely obese patients with a left to right shift of greater than 10 millimeters was 21.2% compared with only 1.3% for patients of a normal weight. SOURCE: American Society for Radiation Oncology
|