• Giuseppe Sanguineti, Eugene J Endres, Brent C Parker, Celine Bicquart, Michael Little, George Chen, and Jason Berilgen.
• Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas Medical Branch, 301 University Boulevard, Galveston, TX 77555, USA. gisangui@utmb.edu
• Acta Oncol. 2008 Jan 1; 47 (2): 301-10.

PurposeTo assess the acute toxicity profile of whole pelvis IMRT (WP-IMRT) for localized prostate cancer.MaterialsEighty seven patients treated with definitive WP-IMRT at UTMB from May 2002 to November 2006 were retrospectively reviewed. Treatment consisted of two sequential phases, WP-IMRT to 54 Gy at 1.8 Gy per fraction to the pelvic nodes and seminal vesicles and 60 Gy at 2 Gy to the prostate, and a separate external beam boost, 3DCRT or IMRT, to bring the dose to the prostate to 76 Gy. Acute toxicity was prospectively scored weekly during treatment and at 3 month follow-up according to CTC v2.0 for 10 genitourinary (GU) and gastrointestinal (GI) domains. The proportion of patients experiencing a given level of peak acute toxicity at a given point is reported.ResultsTreatment was feasible with delivered doses to PTVs not significantly lower than planned ones and with only two patients experiencing treatment gaps longer than 5 days. About 2/3 and 1/10 of the patients experienced peak grade 2 and grade 3 reactions at least once during RT, respectively. Frequency/urgency (Grade 2+: 37.9%) and diarrhea (36.7%) were the most prevalent symptoms followed by proctitis (21.8%) and dysuria (16.1%). GI reactions were generally shorter lasting compared to GU ones which accumulated progressively during treatment. At 3 months, almost half of the patients were asymptomatic and most of observed reactions (89.2%) were mild, with GI ones more likely to be fully resolved (92.5%) than GU ones (68.7%, chi(2), p=0.001).ConclusionOur approach is dosimetrically and clinically feasible with intense, but transient, acute toxicity.

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