New Prostate Cancer Treatment with Radiation Therapy

What is stereotactic body radiation therapy?

Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is a cancer treatment that delivers highly concentrated doses of targeted radiation to a single or solitary tumor. A type of stereotactic radiosurgery, SBRT is a technological advancement in the field of radiation therapy.

Unlike conventional radiation, SBRT delivers the optimal dosage of radiation over a shorter time period (days, not weeks). It delivers large radiation doses to the tumor itself while limiting the amount of radiation going to nearby healthy tissue and organs, where it could cause damage.

What cancers are treated with SBRT?

Radiation oncologists use SBRT to treat small tumors. Your provider may also recommend SBRT if you have health problems that prevent you from getting surgery.

SBRT is a noninvasive alternative to surgery for treating

• Primary cancers: The original tumor.
• Oligometastatic cancers: Tumors that have spread from the primary location, but that are still small and few enough in number for removal.

Cancer types treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy include:

1. Lung cancer.
2. Prostate cancer.
3. Liver cancer.
4. Pancreatic cancer.
   
   

What are some typical SBRT side effects?

Side effects vary, depending on the type of cancer and your overall health:

SBRT for prostate cancer: You may feel an urgent need to pee or feel you have to go more often. You may notice bowel changes, including when and how often you poop or if it hurts to poop. Talk to your healthcare provider about managing these short-term changes.

What are the benefits of SBRT?

Studies show that SBRT is an effective treatment for some cancers. SBRT lets healthcare providers target tumors while limiting the radiation’s impact on nearby organs and tissues. It allows them to remove tumors with near-surgical precision, but without surgery.

SBRT also requires fewer treatments than conventional radiation therapy. This may decrease your risk of side effects.

How successful is SBRT?

Stereotactic body radiation therapy is an effective alternative to surgery in some cases. For example, recent studies show that SBRT is just as effective as surgery for treating some early-stage lung and prostate cancers. For some people, SBRT is also a noninvasive alternative to surgery for slowing tumor growth in cancers that have spread.

What are the risks or complications of SBRT?

In rare cases, SBRT can cause long-term side effects if the radiation damages healthy tissue. When this happens, the side effects depend on which organ was impacted by radiation exposure. But one of the key benefits of SBRT is the precise way in which it’s delivered. Your care team will design your treatment so the radiation impacts tumors, not healthy tissue.

All radiation therapy comes with the very small potential that you’ll develop cancer from your treatment. But another benefit of SBRT is that treatment limits the impact radiation has on healthy organs and tissues. Your healthcare provider will check you regularly for any new or recurring cancer.