CT Scans in Guiding the Treatment of Patients With Prostate Cancer Who Are Undergoing Radiation Therapy

Overview

RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. Multiple CT scans may improve the accuracy of radiation therapy for prostate cancer. PURPOSE: Phase I trial to study the effectiveness of multiple CT scans in guiding the treatment of patients who have prostate cancer and are undergoing radiation therapy.

OBJECTIVES: * Compare the accuracy of radiotherapy delivery using multiple CT scans to guide patient positioning vs the standard portal image guided procedure in patients with prostate cancer undergoing external beam radiotherapy. * Determine the reduction in the proportion of patients with large target positioning errors using the CT-guided procedure. * Determine organ motion and setup errors over the course of radiotherapy in order to develop efficient clinical intervention strategies in these patients. OUTLINE: Patients undergo radiotherapy over 9 weeks. Patients undergo a CT scan immediately prior to receiving radiotherapy on treatment days 3-8 and then weekly thereafter. On 3 different days, patients also undergo CT scan immediately after radiotherapy. If the CT scans indicate a correction that exceeds the action level currently in effect, then beginning with the next treatment, the patient's position with respect to the radiation field is adjusted. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 25 patients will be accrued for this study within 2 years.

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