Thousands of prostate cancer patients around the world stand to benefit from new international guidelines developed with the help of Associate Professor Tom Shakespeare from the Mid North Coast Cancer Institute (MNCCI).
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The guidelines, developed by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR), outline how radiation therapy can be used to cure patients whose prostate cancer has returned after initial treatment.
“This is a world first,” Professor Shakespeare said.
“In the past, patients who have been diagnosed with recurrent prostate cancer have often been told it is incurable. We now believe that these patients can be cured with radiation therapy.”
The guidelines were developed after the RANZCR Faculty of Radiation Oncology Genitourinary Group (FROGG) conducted a national conference to review the new evidence and develop consensus guidelines.
Professor Shakespeare was a convenor of this conference, and a co-author of the guidelines which are about to be published in the prestigious international journal, “Radiotherapy and Oncology”.
He has already treated approximately 100 patients in Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour over the past two years following these guidelines.
“It is early days, but so far by following the guidelines we have more than a 90 per cent cure rate, with very few side-effects. These are amazing results considering in the past we would not have even treated these patients with radiation therapy,” he said.
Professor Shakespeare said the excellent results are due to the early adoption of the new guidelines, which had been in development for nearly two years, and the world class cancer treatment facilities and expert staff available on the Mid North Coast.
“You could not get better results anywhere else,” he said.
He expects to review the treatment results more formally early next year as part of the Mid North Coast Cancer Institute’s quality assurance program.
