Two weeks of prostate cancer radiotherapy still saves lives, study finds
Currently, men with prostate cancer who opt for radiotherapy are given between four and eight weeks of treatment which can comprise around 40 sessions.
But a 10-year trial by Swedish researchers has found the same benefits can be achieved from over two weeks of treatment of higher-dose radiation.
Even though the individual dose is higher, it works out at around half the amount of radiation over time, so brings no more side effects.
Prostate cancer charities said the results were 'fantastic' for men.
'Delivering fewer, higher doses over a shorter period works just as well as the standard approach, not just in theory, but in real-world clinical practice,' said Prof Per Nilsson, senior radiation physicist, at Skåne University Hospital and Lund University.
'For patients, this means less disruption to daily life and potentially lower healthcare costs – without compromising outcomes and safety.'
One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, with 50,000 given the bad news every year.
Prostate cancer is the second-biggest cancer killer of men in the UK, causing 12,000 deaths a year. There are around 510,000 men who are living with the disease or who have survived.
For many patients, radiotherapy is a standard treatment option that offers outcomes comparable to surgery, particularly for localised disease but schedules typically span several weeks, which can be burdensome for patients and put pressure on healthcare systems.
For the new trial, 1,200 men with localised cancer were given either a short course of seven sessions over two and a half weeks, or a standard course of 39 sessions over eight weeks.
Results showed that 72 per cent of men having the shorter treatment did not see their cancer return and did not need more treatment within the next 10 years, compared to 65 per cent of men in the standard group.
Overall survival for the two-week group was 81 per cent compared with 79 per cent for traditional treatment. For both groups four per cent of men died from their cancer in the 10-year follow up.
The shorter treatment group needed a total radiation of 42.7 gy (the unit for absorbed dose) compared to 72 gy for the eight-week group.
Side effects were similar in both groups and were mostly mild to moderate.
'These findings confirm that the shorter course does not increase long-term side effects and provides equally durable cancer control', added Dr Camilla Thellenberg-Karlsson, of Umeå University.
The findings were welcomed by charities.
Simon Grieveson, assistant director of research at Prostate Cancer UK, said: 'We welcome these results. It's fantastic news for men that this has shown the long-term benefits of a shorter course of radiotherapy, meaning that they could still receive the best possible treatment with fewer visits to the hospital.
'We've previously seen similar results from the UK-based PACE B trial, which has shown that using stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy – a form of radiotherapy which delivers high doses of radiation directly to tumours, reducing exposure to healthy tissue around the cancer – can cut down the number of treatment sessions to just five over a two-week period.
'These studies show us that shorter courses of radiotherapy can be just as effective for men compared to the more extensive radiotherapy regimes more commonly used.'
The research was presented at ESTRO 2025, the annual congress of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology.
Prof Matthias Guckenberger, president of ESTRO, added: 'Shorter treatment schedules mean patients can return to their normal lives more quickly.
'Reducing treatment time to just two and a half week is a major win for both patients and health systems.'
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