title: Update on radiation therapy in prostate cancer.
abstract: Higher doses of radiation result in improved clinical control of prostate cancer,and the recent advances in prostate cancer radiotherapy are designed to escalate dose while minimizing toxicity. To achieve this goal, tighter treatment margins are needed, which require more accurate delineation of the prostate target and normal tissue at the time of treatment planning and before actual daily treatments. Modem radiation therapy techniques can deposit conformal dose virtually anywhere in the body; however, this precise therapy is of no value if it is not accurately hitting the target. Whether dose escalation is achieved by external beam techniques (eg, IMRT, protons) or brachytherapy, these ba-sic planning and delivery considerations are essentially the same. Future directions in prostate radiation therapy will use even higher radiation doses,alternative fractionation patterns, intraprostatic targets (eg, prostate tumor seen on MRI), and improved patient selection regarding which patients will benefit the most from these advanced techniques.
authors.affiliation: Division of Radiation Oncology, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030-4009, USA. aklee@mdanderson.org
authors.forename: Andrew K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Frank
mesh_terms: D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D061766:Proton Therapy; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D011881:Radiotherapy, Computer-Assisted; D011522:Protons
chemical_list: D011522:Protons