Study shows equal effectiveness of proton beam therapy and IMRT for prostate cancer

People with low- and intermediate-risk prostate cancer treated with either of two types of contemporary radiation therapy -; proton beam therapy or intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) -; achieved equally high rates of tumor control with no differences in patient-reported quality of life, according to a first-of-its-kind phase III clinical trial comparing the two technologies. Findings of the PARTIQoL trial will be presented today at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.