SBRT for High Risk Prostate Cancer (update)

One of the more interesting developments in the use of radiation to cure high risk prostate cancer is to use SBRT (see this link). The standard of care remains external beam radiation with a brachytherapy boost. But SBRT, if successful for this purpose, may afford equal oncological outcomes with less toxicity and completion in only 5 treatments.

(update 11/18/2018) Alayed et al. reported the 5-year outcomes of 60 men treated with SBRT (which they call SABR) for high-risk prostate cancer at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. The prospective pilot trial comprised 2 cohorts of 30 men each, treated as follows:

1. 40 Gy in 5 fractions to the prostate + 30 Gy in 5 fractions to the seminal vesicles
2. 40 Gy in 5 fractions to the prostate + 25 Gy in 5 fractions to the seminal vesicles AND the pelvic lymph nodes

12-18 months of adjuvant ADT were used in both groups.

Median follow-up was 5.6 years for Group 1 and 4.0 years for Group 2. The 5-year outcomes were:

• Biochemical failure was 15% in Group 1 and 0% in Group 2
• 4-year PSA was < 0.4 ng/ml for 63% of Group 1 and 93% of Group 2
• Late sexual and rectal side effects were worse for Group 1 than Group 2, urinary side effects were similar

This suggests that SBRT provides oncological outcomes that are similar to brachy boost therapy, while the side effects may be lower, especially if the dose to the seminal vesicles is 25 Gy/ 5 fractions. It also suggests that whole pelvic treatment is probably beneficial in high-risk patients and that toxicity is not higher.


Katz and Kang have presented the largest and longest follow-up trial of SBRT for high risk patients, with 98 patients and 8 years of follow up. Of those, 46 were treated with an SBRT boost following whole pelvic IMRT radiation, and 52 were treated with SBRT monotherapy. The 8-yr biochemical disease-free survival was 61%. This did not differ significantly whether they received the SBRT boost or monotherapy. It also did not differ significantly whether they received adjuvant ADT (55% did). Several different doses were used, but none had significantly better performance. Higher stage and higher grade cancers were cured equally well. Only patients with high initial PSA, perhaps indicative of metastases, fared worse than patients with lower initial PSA. Late Grade 2 rectal toxicity was higher for the combo IMRT+SBRT treatment. Late urinary and rectal toxicity were low (5% grade 2 + 3% grade 3 urinary, 7% grade 2 bowel toxicity), and transient, with none after two years.  This was reflected in patient-reported quality-of-life scores, which declined immediately after treatment but returned to baseline in less than a year.

Kishan et al. presented early toxicity outcomes of the UCLA SBRT trial for high risk patients, which was described here and here. They treated 61 patients, 40 with adjuvant androgen deprivation therapy, 23 also received radiation to the pelvic lymph nodes. ADT and nodal radiation had no effect on toxicity.

After 1 year of median follow-up, the physician-reported toxicities were as follows:

• There were no grade 3 or higher toxicities
• Acute grade 2 urinary toxicity - 13%
• Acute grade 2 rectal toxicity - 7%
• Late grade 2 urinary toxicity  - 7%
• Late grade 2 rectal toxicity - 8%

At 12 months, the percent of patients who reported at least minimally detectable changes were:

• Urinary incontinence: 14%
• Urinary obstructive symptoms: 31%
• Bowel symptoms: 28%

There is also a recent report on SBRT boost therapy for high risk patients (see this link). Paydar et al. reported on 108 patients treated at Georgetown University,  59 of whom were high risk. The toxicities reported were as follows:

• Acute urinary toxicity - 18% grade 2 ,  1% grade 3
• Acute rectal toxicity - 7% grade 2
• Late urinary toxicity  - 40% grade 2, 6% grade 3
• Late rectal toxicity - 12% grade 2, 1% grade 3

SBRT boost therapy seems to increase toxicity significantly more than SBRT monotherapy. We will have to wait for reports of oncological outcomes to see whether the trade-off is worthwhile.