SABR: Exploring a new way to treat prostate cancer

www.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.2606616

I hope you understand that SABR is not new. It is usually called SBRT, and has been used since 2003 against prostate cancer. I suppose some doctors thought the name SABR was more evocative and enticing than SBRT. The name is a little misleading because it is not ablative of the entire prostate.

It's not a machine - it's a therapy, the very same therapy (SBRT) as CyberKnife. CyberKnife is a machine. SABR or SBRT is done on several platforms these days.

Thanks to FoxRun for starting the discussion sharing the news-clip and Tall Allen for clarifying that the treatment has been around for some time.

As I understand SBRT/SABR basically use two main components. First is hypo-fractionated dose of radiation. Generally this refers to a single dose of more than 5gy. For most IMRT/IGRT external beam radiation the fraction is a traditional 1.8gy or so. I found one report that referenced a1995 study by Blomgren et al showed success using hypo-fraction radiotherapy in lung cancer. Thus, hypo-fraction has been around for decades.

The second component is the finer beam used to deliver the radiation to smaller fields. This is as a result of the greatly improved use of collimators and computer controls in the late 1990's allowing for finer, more conformal beams. This has given rise to DART, IMRT, IGRT and SBRT/SABR and has been around for many years. We also have seen the specific development of fine beam machines that use the trade names of CyberKnife and GammaKnife. As Tall Allen points out at these have been used for more than a decade. So CyberKnife/GammaKnife refer to the specific dedicated LINAC machines for that use. Whereas SBRT/SABR refer to a radiation method administered by the same LINAC machines used for IMRT/IGRT etc.

In looking at several different articles, publications, and websites from Stanford, NCI, MDAnderson, etc.; all reference SABR when reporting about SBRT. The terms are used interchangeably and this describes the method, not the machine.

When I was doing my treatment research five years ago I spoke to rad-oncs about SBRT/SABR, GammaKnife, CyberKnife etc. There is even a NanoKnife method that was first used for prostate cancer in Atlanta in 2010 that uses electrical current not photon radiation to ablate the cancer tissue. At that time I was basically told that they did not use these techniques for prostate cancer, but did use them for other cancers that were problematic for surgery such as brain, lung, and head and neck cancers. I was told that hypo-fractionated radiation delivery for prostate cancer was delivered in the form of High Dose Rate Brachytherapy, which is what I ended up using along with traditionally fractionated IMRT external beam radiation.

The interesting report FoxRun shared appears to be a new report about not so new technology used specifically for prostate cancer. The Doctor in the report cited survival and side effect information that could only be reported after several years of use and the patient referred to his own treatment several years in the past.

So much for nitpicking. The real value of this is that more men reading this and other related threads can gain knowledge of another radiation method that has many uses with prostate cancer both as initial radiation treatment and salvage treatment. Tall Allen and others have reported on their experiences and I hope that encourages more men to ask about these treatments that, thankfully, are not brand new so we already have significant experience based results over many years to rely on.

I've been very happy with my results!