title: Trends in targeted prostate brachytherapy: from multiparametric MRI to nanomolecular radiosensitizers.
abstract: The treatment of localized prostate cancer is expected to become a significant problem in the next decade as an increasingly aging population becomes prone to developing the disease. Recent research into the biological nature of prostate cancer has shown that large localized doses of radiation to the cancer offer excellent long-term disease control. Brachytherapy, a form of localized radiation therapy, has been shown to be one of the most effective methods for delivering high radiation doses to the cancer; however, recent evidence suggests that increasing the localized radiation dose without bound may cause unacceptable increases in long-term side effects. This review focuses on methods that have been proposed, or are already in clinical use, to safely escalate the dose of radiation within the prostate. The advent of multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) to better identify and localize intraprostatic tumors, and nanomolecular radiosensitizers such as gold nanoparticles (GNPs), may be used synergistically to increase doses to cancerous tissue without the requisite hazard of increased side effects.
authors.affiliation: Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, 2075 Bayview Ave, Toronto, ON M4N3M5 Canada.
authors.forename: Alexandru Mihai
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Nicolae
authors.affiliation: Saskatoon Cancer Centre, 20 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N4H4 Canada.
authors.forename: Niranjan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Venugopal
authors.affiliation: Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, 2075 Bayview Ave, Toronto, ON M4N3M5 Canada.
authors.forename: Ananth
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4583-5741
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ravi
keywords: Brachytherapy; Dominant intraprostatic lesion; Dose escalation; Gold nanoparticles; Hypofractionation; Multiparametric MRI; Prostate cancer