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A new radiotherapy treatment for advanced prostate cancer shows promising results after a small-scale clinical trial in Melbourne.
The treatment could potentially offer thousands of men with the disease a respite from the prospect of taking hormonal drugs blocking testosterone for the rest of their lives.
It is estimated that 18,000 Australian men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2018, while another 3,500 men will probably die.
Many men living with the disease will need to take a long-term hormone therapy, which slows the growth of prostate cancer by blocking testosterone.
But the treatment is also associated with difficult side effects, including weight gain, loss of muscle mass and physical strength, and menopausal-like symptoms, such as hot flashes, loss of libido and osteoporosis.
Precision Radiotherapy
In Australia, scientists at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center treated 33 men with advanced prostate cancer who had developed secondary tumors with a form of high-precision radiotherapy.
The single dose of body ablative stereotactic radiotherapy (SABR) treats each tumor site with extreme accuracy and can be performed in one hour during an outpatient visit.
SABR treatment stopped the growth of cancer spots in 93% of men.
After two years, about half of the men did not need hormone therapy, and in over a third, the cancer did not return.
Tony McDonnell, 77, of Mount Barker in South Australia, went to Melbourne
M. McDonnell was placed on hormone therapy for life to inhibit the growth of secondary tumors, after removal of his prostate due to cancer in 2011.
However, McDonnell developed secondary tumors on his spine and hip
Since participating in the study, secondary cancer tumors have disappeared and it is no longer under hormonal treatment.
"I got rid of bone cancer without any pain, with no side effects," McDonnell said.
"It's just brilliant."
For a group of patients
Radiation Oncologist Dr. Shankar Siva said the early results were "very promising".
"This is an attractive option for potentially delaying hormone therapy and its side effects in a small group of patients," said Associate Professor Siva.
"We still have to figure out which are the best patients who will benefit from this treatment."
Dr. Siva said that planning for a large-scale international randomized clinical trial is underway to examine whether treatment could prolong the life of prostate cancer patients.
The results of the trial were published today in the medical journal European Urology.
Topics:
diseases and disorders,
Cancer,
Prostate cancer,
melbourne-3000
vic,
mount-barker-5251
her
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