Dr. Tom Corbett is a Radiation Oncologist with the Juravinski Cancer Centre and Hospital which is part of the Hamilton Health Sciences of the McMaster University.

Dr. Corbett gave us an excellent review of the history of Radiation Treatment for Prostate Cancer.

Early radiation treatment utilized low energy x-rays and was only capable to treating and destroying tumours located near the surface of the body such as forms of skin cancer.

Over time, the power of radiation sources increased as did our knowledge of radiation physics and biology. This made it more and more possible to treat deeper tumours but in the early stages it was difficult to visualize and focus the treatment on the tumour without affecting the surrounding tissues.

Newer imaging technologies like CT and MRI combined with computer aided guidance systems have made accurate treatment possible while minimizing the side effects to surrounding tissues.

The radiation is focused from different points to maximize the dosage at points within the tumour and minimize the dosage outside of the tumour.

 IMRT uses gold seeds to accurately pinpoint the position of the prostate as it can move somewhat from time to time. Using the “seed concept”

Brachytherapy takes this a stage further by implanting tiny radioactive seeds to destroy cancer cells in a very focused manner in early stages of the disease.

This combination of imaging and computer aided focusing of treatment allows for effective Radiation Treatment Planning.

Many of these systems rotate around the patient to further reduce the radiation dosage received by surrounding tissues.

Future treatments protocols employ higher dosages of radiation over shorter periods of time and the current technology makes this much easier to accomplish.

Dr. Corbett also spoke of supplemental hormone therapy, cancer growth inhibitors and immunotherapy as they can increase the overall effectiveness of treatment.

The evening wrapped up with a good question and answer session.

Our thanks to Dr. Corbett for taking the time to bringing us up to date on the subject.