Prostate cancer could be cured in a week with new radiotherapy

MEN could be cured of prostate cancer in a week using larger doses of precision radiotherapy, scientists believe.

A trial will begin this week at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London to find out whether it is safe to radically speed up treatment.

Currently, men who develop prostate cancer are usually treated in 20 sessions over a month. But scientists want to cut the therapy to just two high-dose treatments, which could be carried out over the space of one or two weeks.

The trial is the first in the world to compare the long-term outcomes for people using this kind of concentrated therapy, compared with the standard treatment.

Around 48,500 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year and, if caught early, there is an 80 per cent chance of survival with radiotherapy.

Dr Alison Tree, a consultant clinical oncologist at the Royal Marsden and the Institute of Cancer Research, London (ICR), told The Sunday Times, that in future, men may be able to “come in, get cured, get on with their [lives] and forget about their cancer completely”.

Last month, the same team published results of a trial showing that the number of sessions could be safely cut to five, with only minimal side effects.

The PACE-B trial found that two years after treatment nearly 90 per cent of patients experienced only minor side effects, while 99 per cent were free of severe side effects, suggesting that shortened treatment could be given without the risk of long-term damage from toxicity.

Chief Investigator Dr Nicholas van As, medical director and consultant clinical oncologist at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: “[We] are focused on developing smarter, better and kinder treatments for patients across the UK and internationally.

“Patients could be spared numerous visits to hospital, allowing them to get back to their lives sooner.”

Specialists have been able to cut the number of sessions because radiotherapy has become more precise in recent years, meaning there is less risk of healthy tissue being damaged, so higher doses can be given.

Scientists also think that giving higher doses in one go may be more effective at fighting cancer.

Experts have found that blitzing tumours with large doses may be better at quickly stopping the disease than using several lower doses.