[Which alpha/beta ratio for prostate cancer in 2019?]

[Which alpha/beta ratio for prostate cancer in 2019?] Cancer Radiother. 2019 May 20;: Authors: Cosset JM, Chargari C, Créhange G Abstract In 1999, Brenner and Hall reported for prostate cancer a very low alpha/beta ratio (1.5Gy). In the following years, this value has been confirmed by a large series of papers, so that this very low alpha/beta ratio became a "dogma", on which a large number of hypofractionated schemes were being built. This was logical, since this very low value strongly suggested a beneficial advantage of hypofractionation for prostate cancer. However, more recently, several questions arose; first, a number of authors reported, from the analysis of their own data, values of alpha/beta ratio which were higher than the "dogma". Secondly, the three modern "superiority trials", aiming at demonstrating the advantages of hypofractionated schemes, actually failed to show such a superiority, in spite of high equivalent doses (calculated with an alpha/beta of 1.5Gy), reaching up to 84 - 90Gy. In 2018, three review papers/metanalyses shed a new light on what could be the value of the alpha/beta ratio for prostate cancer. In particular, those studies took into account a "time factor" (for repopulation), a parameter which had been either forgotten or underestimated before. In those three studies, the alpha/beta ratio was ranging from 2.7Gy to 4.9Gy. Those data do confirm the sensitivity to the fraction dose variation of prosta...
Source: Cancer Radiotherapie - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Cancer Radiother Source Type: research