A Sharp Advantage for Men with PCa

An article of interest from a recent MSK newsletter:

“Also known as stereotactic radiosurgery, SHARP is a form of external beam radiation that uses sophisticated imaging technologies combined with an advanced computer system to deliver very high doses of radiation to tumors with an accuracy of under a millimeter.

Another advantage of SHARP is that patients require only five treatment sessions, with the entire course being completed in a little over a week, compared with close to 50 sessions over ten weeks using the conventional approach.

In addition, each SHARP treatment session takes three to four minutes, whereas patients treated with other forms of stereotactic radiosurgery, such as CyberKnife®, are required to spend nearly an hour on the treatment table for each session.”

Here is the full article:
/www.mskcc.org/clinical-updates/sharp-advantage-men-prostate?utm_source=OncoNotes-6-13-17&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Feature-4&utm_campaign=ProstateImage

Yes indeed, the world of Radiation Treatment is changing very rapidly...What was state-of-the-art 5 years ago is now obsolete practice..Same goes for the LINACS (the machines that administer the radiation...) When clinics and hospitals purchase this very expensive equipment I bet they were hoping to get more than 5 years service life out of it....

searchinginla said...
How is this different than SBRT?

I think it is in the intensity of the beams. They stated that SHARP treatments are only 4-5 minutes each, while CyberKnife treatments (like mine) are 45-60 minutes each. I'm not sure if there is any difference in efficacy, though.

Tall Allen may know, as he was treated with one of the Varian units, which is capable of the 5-minute treatments.

Since posting this article, I’ve talked with a Medical Physicist that I know personally. He said SBRT is essentially the same technique, but it is true that MSK is the only place offering the treatment - in this manner: planning off an MRI and using the spacer gel (between the prostate and the rectum) and real time tracking all at once. Most places use one or two of these things. However you can get Stereotactic Radiotherapy of the prostate at many clinics across the country. Also insurers stopped paying specifically for real time tracking because it was found to be no better than regular on board imaging.

The spacer gel is something I had never heard of. He said it is being used at a couple places. It has the potential to be a game changer but it isn't in widespread use yet.