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Updated: Mar 13, 2026
Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Gynecologic Cancer
Published on: April 17, 2012
Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy Versus Low Dose Rate Brachytherapy or External Beam Radiotherapy: Propensity Score
A Loblaw1, T Pickles2, J Crook3
1Department of Radiation Oncology, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Health Policy, Measurement and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Aims:
To compare biochemical failure-free survival (BFFS) and overall survival for prostate cancer treated with stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR), low dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy or external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) using a large Canadian multi-institutional database.
Materials And Methods:
Patients with low risk localised prostate cancer treated with SABR, LDR or EBRT and no androgen deprivation therapy were selected. Propensity score matching was used to create two sets of matched cohorts with LDR and EBRT serving as control groups. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to compare differences in BFFS and overall survival between treatment groups.
Results:
The pre-matched cohort contained 602 patients; the median follow-up was >5.0 years. There were no significant differences in BFFS before or after matching for SABR versus LDR but the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) nadir was lower after LDR. For the SABR versus EBRT, SABR had a BFFS trend before matching (P = 0.08), which became significant after matching (P < 0.001).
Conclusions:
Using the Genitourinary Radiation Oncologists of Canada Prostate Cancer Risk Stratification database, low risk prostate cancer patients receiving SABR had similar BFFS compared with patients receiving LDR but better BFFS than EBRT patients. Further comparative studies of efficacy, quality of life and economic outcomes using a broader risk of patients are warranted.
