The long-term results of prostate cancer treatment at the Proton Center in Prague were published by two prestigious medical journals.
Ultra-hypofractionated proton radiotherapy in the treatment of intermediate- and low-risk prostate tumours – 5-year post-treatment outcomes.
One of the first papers based on PTC patient treatment data was published in mid-February 2021.
The study was published by the prestigious international journal, the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics, and followed a total of 279 patients who were treated for prostate cancer with proton radiotherapy using the pencil beam scanning method (on average, the treatment lasted 9 days) over a period of 8 years. The study yielded interesting results. “These show that 5 years after treatment, 97% of patients with low-risk prostate cancer are cured and do not have an increase in PSA (prostate specific antigen) levels. For patients with prostate cancer of medium risk, we can state that a total of 90% of them were cured,” said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jiří Kubeš, PhD. In addition, none of the patients died from prostate cancer in the monitored group of patients, and all patients had only minimal side effects (toxicity).
Following the publication of this study, the team of Proton Center physicians continued their treatment and publication efforts, resulting in a second, retrospective analysis, the main purpose of which was to confirm the results of the first study.
Five-year analysis of the efficacy and toxicity of ultra-hypofractionated proton radiotherapy in low- and medium-risk prostate cancer: a retrospective analysis
It was published in 2023 in the peer-reviewed medical journal Cancers. “Even before the publication of our first paper, valuable data from the treatment of a larger group of patients were generally missing. Therefore, our second analysis is a kind of extension of the previously published results, which were published based on the observation of a smaller number of patients. Our goal this time was to verify the results of proton therapy in prostate cancer on a sufficiently large group of patients who underwent proton treatment,” said Associate Professor Kubeš, explaining the reasons for the second analysis.
During the minimum 6-month post-radiation follow-up after recovery, patients underwent clinical examinations, PSA measurements and evaluation of possible side effects of the treatment (toxicity). “Even the results of the second study confirmed an almost 97% success rate in curing the disease in patients with low-risk disease. Biochemical recurrence of the disease was observed in only 58 patients, which represents 6.8% of the total number of 853 patients under monitoring. In the 5-year follow-up period, 94.1% of patients from the entire group were without biochemical recurrence of the disease, said senior consultant doctor Kubeš about the conclusions of the confirmatory analysis.
