Modern radiotherapy in the treatment of localized prostate cancer

Abstract

Prostate cancer (PC) is one of the most prevalent cancers in men and the second leading cause of cancerrelated deaths, after lung cancer. The incidence and mortality from PC worldwide are correlated with increasing age. The treatment of patients is multidisciplinary, with radiotherapy being an integral part, whether applied as an independent method or in combination with surgery or systemic therapy. The technological progress in the middle of the last century, opened up new possibilities in the planning and conducting radiotherapy started the new era of radiotherapy called modern radiotherapy. Today, highly conformal external beam techniques such as intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and volume-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) are used as the gold standard in PC radiotherapy. They enable the precise definition of tumor volume based on modern diagnostic procedures, with maximum sparing of the surrounding organs. Advanced conformal techniques have also led to an escalation of the tumor dose, thus achieving better local control of the disease with significant reduction of early and late complications of treatment, the quality of life of PC patients is preserved. In addition to technological progress, modern radiotherapy includes monitoring the side effects of radiotherapy, and assessment of clinical and individual parameters that affect sensitivity and response to radiation. This should enable personalized radiotherapy with optimization of the treatment for each patient, which is one of the goals of modern oncology.