For many men, radiotherapy is an effective, gentle and safe treatment option for prostate cancer instead of surgery. Thanks to new technology, only a few radiation sessions are required.
Many people only know radiotherapy for cancer as an adjunct to surgery or chemotherapy, but radiotherapy is a treatment option in its own right. Little is known about radiation as a safe, gentle and very effective treatment, especially for younger men with prostate cancer. “Unfortunately, many patients are still being operated on today for whom radiotherapy would have been a real or even better alternative to surgery, but who were not sufficiently or not at all informed about this alternative,” says Matthias Guckenberger, Director of the Clinic for Radio-Oncology. “The effectiveness and probability of cure have been proven to be the same for radiotherapy and surgery for all stages of prostate cancer.”
Modern radiotherapy: highly precise and effective
This is made possible by new, high-precision irradiation equipment. In 2019, the USZ became the first hospital in Switzerland to put an “MRI Linac” into operation – a device that combines radiotherapy and MRI imaging in a single unit, opening up new possibilities for tumor treatment. Before each individual treatment, the radiation is adapted to the patient using imaging. The device can also be used to check the correct position of the prostate several times a minute during irradiation, allowing the radiation to be continuously focused on the tumor: the tumor tissue is thus hit with high precision, while the healthy tissue and organs around the tumor – such as the bladder, bowel and nerves in the case of prostate cancer – are spared as much as possible. “A loss of erectile function or incontinence are common consequences of prostate surgery, but this occurs much less frequently or not at all after radiotherapy, which is particularly important for active men, younger patients but also older patients, when deciding whether surgery or radiotherapy is the right treatment for them personally,” says Guckenberger.
Outpatient treatment with few radiotherapy sessions
Thanks to highly focused radiotherapy, the number of radiotherapy sessions can also be reduced from the usual 20 to 40 for many patients to just five outpatient sessions. For patients, this means a high quality of life despite their illness and cancer treatment: the entire therapy takes place on an outpatient basis and can be integrated into everyday professional and private life. “Many of my patients come straight from work or private activities for radiation and return to the USZ after an hour. This is possible because the radiation treatment is very well tolerated,” says Guckenberger. He therefore regrets that still too few patients benefit from the enormous progress of radiotherapy because they are not informed about this possibility by their treating physicians.
Further treatment options for prostate cancer
