Therapeutic options for localized carcinoma of the prostate: the role of external beam radiation therapy.

During the last three decades the use of ionizing radiation, both external beam radiotherapy and interstitial radionuclide implant (brachytherapy), has greatly increased for the treatment of cancer of the prostate. The increased use of radiation therapy is in part due to the technological advance of high-energy megavoltage units as well as the steadily improving long-term results of radiotherapy. Because of the comparable tumor control rates, patients with early stage prostate cancer have several therapeutic options for curative treatment including radical prostatectomy, external beam radiation therapy, and interstitial brachytherapy. The role of external beam radiotherapy is discussed in terms of the primary management of early and locally advanced prostate cancers as well as the treatment of residual or recurrent disease after prostatectomy. A new approach combines antimitotic chemotherapeutic agents and radiation therapy for the treatment of locally advanced cancers of the prostate.