A single dose of high-dose rate brachytherapy prevents biochemical recurrence for at least 3 years in patients with low-risk prostate cancer, but is less effective among those with higher-risk disease, researchers report.

Adding androgen deprivation therapy to external beam radiotherapy may result in better survival than adding a brachytherapy boost in men with intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer, network meta-analysis data suggest.

External beam radiotherapy plus brachytherapy and radical prostatectomy are both suitable options for men with high-risk prostate cancer, while EBRT–BT appears to be the optimal regimen for Gleason score 9–10 disease, indicate the results of two studies. Click here for a commentary by advisory board member Axel Merseburger.

Finally, the researchers used adjusted natural cubic spline analysis to identify the optimal duration of ADT as 26.3 months for men receiving EBRT alone and 12.0 months for those treated with EBRT plus brachytherapy.

In addition, there were no clinically meaningful differences between EBRT and active surveillance for urinary, sexual, and bowel function outcomes throughout the 5-year period, and between LDR brachytherapy and active surveillance from 1 year onwards.

Chen and co-authors conclude in Cancer that “RT alone results in the best preservation of sexual function, and brachytherapy provides similar outcomes” in men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer.

However, in subgroup analyses, postdiagnosis use of aspirin was associated with a significantly reduced risk for PCSM in patients with a Gleason score no higher than 6 (HR=0.82), while the risk was increased for those who received brachytherapy as primary therapy (HR=1.81).

Women with early breast cancer have similar quality of life at 5 years whether they are treated with accelerated partial breast irradiation using multicatheter brachytherapy or whole-breast irradiation, GEC-ESTRO data show.

The nonsurgical approach, termed MaxRT, consisted of EBRT, brachytherapy, and ADT, explain Anthony D’Amico (Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA) and colleagues in JAMA Oncology .

Comment on: EBRT plus brachytherapy stands out for high-risk prostate cancer

Between July 2003 and September 2011, 850 women with FIGO stage IIIB squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix were randomly assigned to receive either weekly cisplatin (40 mg/m 2 per week) plus a combination of external beam RT (50 Gy in 25 fractions over 5 weeks) and brachytherapy or the RT/brachytherapy regimen alone.

Two sets of findings could help men choosing between radical prostatectomy, external beam radiotherapy, brachytherapy, and active surveillance for localized prostate cancer.