The IMOR Institute is one of the reference centers in the field of radiation oncology treatments. We spoke with Dr. Benjamín Guix, director of IMOR and professor of radiotherapy and physical medicine at the University of Barcelona, to talk to us about the advances in the oncological treatment of prostate cancer.
Has the treatment of prostate cancer evolved much in recent times?
Very much so. Today we can say that if we have an early diagnosis of the tumor it is possible to achieve a cure rate of close to 100%. For this, as always, it is necessary to carry out periodic controls of the PSA marker, which is the one that indicates a possible risk of prostate cancer.
When should these controls be carried out?
Statistics show us that we have more and more patients with younger prostate tumors, so the ideal would be to start having them checked every two years from the age of 40 onwards. Bear in mind that prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men, so control is essential to achieve a complete cure.
What techniques are currently used at IMOR?
When diagnosed in the early stages, the tumor is usually located in one part of the prostate. This is what we call an organ-confined tumor. For lower-risk tumors, brachytherapy is used, a technique that applies radiation to the diseased cells and which, in a session lasting a few hours and carried out in a single day, makes it possible to achieve a 99% cure rate within a follow-up period of 10 to 15 years. If the tumor is more aggressive, the main novelty is external radiotherapy combined with high-dose rate brachytherapy, with results that are around 95-98% of cures with the same follow-up period.
What are the advantages of these techniques?
In addition to their efficacy, this type of radiotherapeutic action avoids prostatectomy, i.e. the patient’s prostate does not have to be removed. This means that there is no urinary incontinence and, in a high percentage of cases, erectile dysfunction is also avoided. These techniques have no side effects, leave no after-effects and improve the patients’ quality of life. In fact, these techniques – known as stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) – are more selective when it comes to preserving healthy tissue and are even beginning to be applied in the treatment of other types of cancer, such as lung cancer.