Interest in Use of Fewer Radiation Treatments Across Cancer Types is Accelerating, Says Expert

The use of hypofractionated radiation—fewer radiation treatments at larger doses—in several cancer types is accelerating, according to an expert.

During the 2022 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting, CancerNetwork^® spoke with Louis Potters, MD, FACR, FABS, FASTRO, about some of the potentially practice-changing results in the radiation oncology space that were presented at the conference.

Potters, who is the chair of the Department of Radiation Medicine and deputy physician-in-chief of Northwell Health Cancer Institute in New Hyde Park, New York, said that the accelerated use of hypofractionated radiation, especially in the prostate and breast cancer settings, as well as using radiation to manage oligometastatic disease were some key overarching themes of the data seen at ASTRO.

Transcript:

I really did enjoy the meeting a lot this year; there was a lot of really good science. Not only that, it was really nice seeing colleagues and friends after not having seen them for the last number of years. If one was to take away an overall theme from the meeting, it was the continued acceleration of hypofractionation: the idea of using fewer treatments for any disease in particular. There was a lot of data on breast and prostate [cancer]. Secondly, an overarching macro-theme was the opportunity to use radiation for oligometastatic disease. There was discussion about prostate cancer in particular [and] other diseases as well in either a curative approach or in a palliative type of setting.