Emerging Modalities in Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer

Even in the posthuman genomic era, radiation therapy singularly continues to offer considerable hope to the patients with localized prostate cancer and the metastatic disease. The radiation therapy techniques and their combination with other emerging modalities have developed rapidly over the past two decades at an increasing pace. These newer treatment modalities, apart from their therapeutic benefits, have shown remarkable advantages such as shortening treatment durations, patient visits, saving medical resources, and reducing treatment costs. This chapter will attempt to highlight some of the novel modalities that are nearing clinical application. With the advent of improved patient stratification methods, advanced imaging modalities, adaptive radiation therapies, and expansion of new types of external beam irradiation, better understanding of molecular mechanisms of various radiation sensitization targets, promising genomic and metabolomic biomarkers, and critical findings derived from a wide-range of combinatorial treatment modality clinical trials involving systemic and surgical approaches, the future of radiation therapy treatment options for prostate cancer patients look bright.