In-depth: Radiology Today on the landmark ASCENDE-RT study results
Many in the prostate cancer treatment community were aware of the ASCENDE-RT study and eagerly awaited its results.
From this month’s issue of Radiology Today:
“The Androgen Suppression Combined With Elective Nodal and Dose Escalated Radiation Therapy (ASCENDE-RT) trial is a historic study. It represents a first-ever comparison between usage of low dose rate prostate brachytherapy (LDR-PB) and traditional usage of dose-escalated external beam radiation therapy (DE-EBRT). Specifically, the researchers applied the comparison in the treatment of intermediate- and high-risk patients. The results validate a new treatment concept: Both patient sets can be better served from additional application of a more-specific brachytherapy approach. Benefits could be substantial and include a longer-term, biochemical progression-free survival. For prostate cancer patients, that translates into less emotional stress related to erectile issues.”
In recent years the introduction of IMRT, procedural challenges and some side effects both clinicians and patients deemed unacceptable had caused brachytherapy to experience a decline in utility for prostate cancer treatment. That could be about to change.
Again from Dan Harvey for Radiology Today,
David Beyer, MD, FASTRO, medical director of the Cancer Centers of Northern Arizona in Sedona and immediate past chair of the ASTRO board of directors, says, “We were very excited about the promise of IMRT. What made it so attractive was that it allowed for dose escalation. Oncologists and urologists—I include myself—thought that dose escalation with IMRT alone was good enough.”
Data made available via ASCENDE-RT led to another reconsideration.
“The data show that the decision to do less brachytherapy and more IMRT was wrong,” Beyer says.
You can find the comprehensive article in its entirety here.
These extraordinary findings lend further credence to the mounting evidence (including new research from the UCLA Institute of Urologic Oncology) that brachytherapy as a prostate cancer treatment trend may soon reverse course and we may be well on our way towards a brachytherapy renaissance.
Isoray’s proprietary Cesium-131 isotope provides urologists, radiation oncologists and prostate cancer patients with a high-energy, short half-life isotope that allows patients to quickly move beyond their prostate cancer. Learn more about Cesium-131 here.
It is time for those treating prostate cancer to take another look at brachytherapy. To arrange a call or meeting contact customerservice@isoray.flywheelstaging.com.
