• Irene Lips, Human Dehnad, Arto Boeken Kruger, Jeroen van Moorselaar, Uulke van der Heide, Jan Battermann, and Marco van Vulpen.
• Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands. I.M.Lips@umcutrecht.nl
• Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 2007 Nov 1; 69 (3): 656-61.

PurposeTo compare quality of life (QoL) after 70 Gy conformal radiotherapy with QoL after 76 Gy intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) in patients with locally advanced prostate carcinoma.Methods And MaterialsSeventy-eight patients with locally advanced prostate cancer were treated with 70 Gy three-field conformal radiotherapy, and 92 patients received 76 Gy IMRT with fiducial markers for position verification. Quality of life was measured by RAND-36, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer core questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30(+3)), and the prostate-specific EORTC QLQ-PR25, before radiotherapy (baseline) and 1 month and 6 months after treatment. Quality of life changes in time (baseline vs. 1 month and baseline vs. 6 months) of > or =10 points were considered clinically relevant.ResultsDifferences between the treatment groups for QoL changes over time occurred in several QoL domains. The 76-Gy group revealed no significant deterioration in QoL compared with the 70-Gy group. The IMRT 76-Gy group even demonstrated a significantly better change in QoL from baseline to 1 month in several domains. The conformal 70-Gy group revealed temporary deterioration in pain, role functioning, and urinary symptoms; for the IMRT 76-Gy group a better QoL in terms of change in health existed after 1 month, which persisted after 6 months. For both treatment groups temporary deterioration in physical role restriction occurred after 1 month, and an improvement in emotional role restriction occurred after 6 months. Sexual activity was reduced after treatment for both groups and remained decreased after 6 months.ConclusionsIntensity-modulated radiotherapy and accurate position verification seem to provide a possibility to increase the radiation dose for prostate cancer without deterioration in QoL.

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