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Updated: May 13, 2026

Enhancing Prostate Tumor Biobanking Reliability with Improved Sampling Technique and Histological Characterization
Published on: November 17, 2023
Is the α/β ratio for prostate tumours really low and does it vary with the level of risk at diagnosis?
Jack F Fowler1, Iuliana Toma-Dasu, Alexandru Dasu
1Department of Radiation Physics, Linköping University Hospital, 58185 Linköping, Sweden. alexandru.dasu@lio.se
Aim:
To answer the questions: Is the α/β ratio (radiosensitivity to size of dose-per-fraction) really low enough to justify using a few large dose fractions instead of the traditional many small doses? Does this parameter vary with prognostic risk factors?
Methods And Materials:
Three large statistical overviews are critiqued, with results for 5,000, 6,000 and 14,000 patients with prostate carcinoma, respectively.
Results:
These major analyses agree in finding the average α/β ratio to be less than 2 Gy: 1.55, (95% confidence interval=0.46-4.52), 1.4 (0.9-2.2), and the third analysis 1.7 (1.4-2.2) by the ASTRO and 1.6 (1.2-2.2) by Phoenix criteria. All agree that α/β values do not vary significantly with the low, intermediate, high and "all-included" risk factors.
Conclusion:
The high sensitivity to dose-per-fraction is an intrinsic property of prostate carcinomas and this supports the use of hypo-fractionation to increase the therapeutic gain for these tumours with dose-volume modelling to reduce the risk of late complications in rectum and bladder.
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