A HIGH-TECH form of radiotherapy, which takes only a few minutes, is giving hope to men with prostate cancer previously considered incurable.
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The technology "sculpts" the radiation beams to the tumours, allowing increased levels of radiation to be given to cancerous cells while sparing nearby normal tissue.
A long-term clinical trial was held from 2000-2010 to test whether this new method could safely treat the lymph nodes of the pelvis, a common site for prostate cancer to spread.
Of the 447 men in the trial, 71 per cent were alive and disease-free five years after treatment with the intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and the follow-up survival rate was 87 per cent after about 8.5 years.
When the trial began, many patients were considered incurable as giving radiotherapy to this region of the body had been considered too risky because of the risk of severe side-effects.
Researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust also found the treatment was safe, with only between 8 and 16 per cent of patients experiencing side effects in the bowel or bladder.
The treatment has become the standard of care at major cancer centres in the UK.
"These long-term results demonstrate that using IMRT to target the pelvic lymph nodes is safe and effective for men with prostate cancer," said study lead David Dearnaley, Professor of Uro-Oncology at the Institute of Cancer Research.
"This technique has already proven to be a game-changer for men with prostate cancer.
"I'm excited to see this treatment become available to every man with prostate cancer who could benefit from it.
"Between treating the first-ever patients on this trial, and those we treat today, there has been a complete revolution in using this technique.
"When we first started it took 45 minutes to provide treatment; today it only takes two or three minutes. It's been a giant leap forward for radiotherapy treatment."
The institute's chief executive, Professor Paul Workman, said radiotherapy was often seen as "perhaps old-fashioned and crude compared with other cancer treatments - but nothing could be further from the truth". He said radiotherapy was now a highly precise, incredibly sophisticated treatment.
The study was published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics.
