Part of a Global Panel, Sylvester Radiation Oncologist Helps Refine Prostate Cancer Treatment

Recommendations may help make treatment more accurate and reduce complications.

Alan Dal Pra, M.D., director of the Radiation Oncology Clinical Research Program at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, was part of a global consensus panel charged with standardizing and improving current guidelines for patients at high risk for prostate cancer recurrence through a procedure known as prostate bed contouring, in which radiation oncologists irradiate the prostate bed after radical prostatectomy.

The procedure can potentially cure these patients but, despite existing guidelines, there is wide variability in how it is performed in real-world practice.

“We set out to refine previous guidelines to help clinicians better define the boundaries around the prostate bed to target with radiation, which will hopefully improve treatment outcomes while reducing unnecessary irradiation of normal tissue,” said Dr. Dal Pra, the only U.S. expert on the panel.

“These recommendations align with our own work on patterns of progression detected by new molecular imaging. For patients with prostate cancer who have had prostatectomy and require postoperative radiation, these new standardized guidelines could help deliver more accurate treatments while minimizing the risk of unwanted complications,” he said.

The panel, part of the European Society for Radiation and Oncology Advisory Committee on Radiation Oncology Practice (ESTRO-ACROP), developed the guidelines based on current practice and the use of new imaging technologies. Dr. Dal Pra presented the ESTRO-ACROP guidelines during the ESTRO Annual Meeting in Vienna, and the manuscript was published May 9 in Clinical and Translational Radiation Oncology.

Tags: Clinical and Translational Radiation Oncology journal, Dr. Alan Dal Pra, European Society for Radiation and Oncology, prostate bed contouring, prostate cancer, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center