According to the American Cancer Society, there will be an estimated 186,320 new cases of prostate cancer in the U.S. and nearly 30,000 men will die from the disease this year. The good news is that the disease can be detected early through routine yearly exams and successfully treated.

Men diagnosed with the disease are faced with the complicated task of educating themselves on the latest available primary treatment options which can include surgery, hormone therapy, internal radiation implants (brachytherapy) and external beam irradiation. The size and specific location of the cancer as well as lifestyle choices of the patient may determine which treatment option is best for each individual.

Alone, or in combination with other treatment modalities, radiation therapy is used in more than half of the men diagnosed with cancer to initially treat prostate cancer. The most state-of-the-art external beam radiation therapy techniques utilizing Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) and Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) are now available right in Chester County’s residents’ own backyard at Comprehensive Cancer Care.

IMRT is the most widely used radiation therapy for prostate cancer. It provides highly sophisticated radiotherapy utilizing computer-controlled x-ray linear accelerators to deliver radiation doses with high precision. IMRT is also used in combination with IGRT which localizes the treatment tumor site daily before treatment for pinpoint accuracy and effectiveness.

"Typically, a combination of several intensity-modulated fields coming from different beam directions produce a custom tailored radiation dose that maximizes tumor dose while also protecting adjacent normal tissues," said Won Chang, MD, radiation oncologist at Comprehensive Cancer Care.

This external radiation therapy treatment is performed on an outpatient basis and provides excellent survival rates equivalent to radical surgery for prostate cancer patients. It is a non-invasive and painless treatment that helps maintain a patient’s high quality of life during the treatment process. "It is an excellent way of delivering high doses of radiation while limiting the radiation dose to surrounding areas. The treatment combination of IMRT and IGRT is quickly becoming the standard of care for treating prostate cancer," said Gregory Ochsner, MD, radiation oncologist at Comprehensive Cancer Care.

For more information, please call Comprehensive Cancer Care at (610) 524-5550 or visit www.extonroc.com.