Prostate Cancer

Radiotherapy is one of the basic methods of prostate cancer treatment. The most modern method is proton, i.e. particle radiotherapy. The distribution of radiation dose in tissues in proton therapy shows many advantages when compared to the techniques of photon therapy. This dosimetric advantage increases with the growing size of the target volume and complexity of shapes in the target volume (for example irradiation of seminal vesicles or lymph nodes). There is a general rule of dose dependence in radiotherapy – the higher the dose on healthy tissue, the higher the risk of side effects.

Prostate cancer is the most frequent diagnosis treated in proton centers all over the world. The reason is the high degree of curability, an effort to reduce late, unwanted effects and emphasis on the quality of patient´s life.

Advantages of proton therapy for prostate cancer:

• Recently published studies describe severe toxicity of treatment in less than 1% of a large population of patients.
• Unlike surgical therapy, proton therapy does not lead to the development of impotence.
• In the case of high-risk prostate carcinoma, proton radiotherapy allows for irradiation of the pelvic lymph nodes with high probability of subclinical affection. This clinical situation best reflects the dosimetric and clinical benefits of proton radiotherapy as it causes no harm to organs in the abdominal cavity, in particular intestinal villi.
• Based on the latest published data, the 5-year survival rate without PSA relapse is 97% for low-risk prostate carcinoma, 85–95% for moderate-risk prostate carcinoma and 75–85% for high-risk prostate carcinoma.