Earlier this month, a retrospective study of prostate cancer patients with Gleason scores of 9-10 published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded the following: “Among patients with Gleason score 9-10 prostate cancer, treatment with EBRT [external beam radiation therapy] + BT [brachytherapy boost] with androgen deprivation therapy was associated with significantly better prostate cancer–specific mortality and longer time to distant metastasis compared with EBRT with androgen deprivation therapy or with RP [radical prostatectomy].”
From the UCLA Newsroom, “The study, led by UCLA researcher Dr. Amar Kishan in collaboration with researchers at 11 institutions across the United States, is the first of its kind to compare treatment outcomes between radiotherapy treatments that are higher than the standard dose and traditional treatments, such as radiation and prostatectomy (the surgical removal of all or part of the prostate gland), in men with cancers that are Gleason score 9 or 10 (the highest score possible
Dr. Amar Kishan. Photo credit: UCLA Health
“Patients with the best outcomes were those who received an aggressive therapy that included so-called ‘extremely dose-escalated radiotherapy’ along with hormonal therapy.”
“The type of aggressive form of prostate cancer that we focused on has sometimes been regarded as so high risk that some patients even forgo local treatments, like surgery or radiation, because they are worried that the cancer has already spread and is incurable,” said Kishan, who is an assistant professor of radiation oncology and member of the Institute of Urologic Oncology at UCLA. “Our findings, in fact, show just the opposite — in this study, the patients with the best outcomes were those who received an aggressive therapy that included so-called ‘extremely dose-escalated radiotherapy’ along with hormonal therapy.”
These extraordinary findings lend further credence to the mounting evidence (like ASCENDE-RT) that the decline in brachytherapy as a prostate cancer treatment modality may soon reverse course and we may be well on our way towards a brachytherapy renaissance.
Isoray’s proprietary Cesium-131 isotope provides urologists, radiation oncologists and prostate cancer patients with a high-energy, short half-life isotope.
It is time for those treating prostate cancer to take another look at brachytherapy. To arrange a call or meeting contact customerservice@isoray.com.
