ArticleRadiation oncology (London, England)2023
Use of focal radiotherapy boost for prostate cancer: radiation oncologists' perspectives and perceived barriers to implementation.
Article in Radiation oncology (London, England), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Determinants of Toxicity in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer With a Focal, Intraprostatic "Microboost".International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics · 2025Pooled it
- Focal radiotherapy boost to MR-visible tumor for prostate cancer: a systematic review.World journal of urology · 2024Pooled it
- The role of diffusion-weighted MRI in biological image-guided radiation therapy: a roadmap.Physics in medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Implications for Radiation Microboosting Based on Pathology Correlations With Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen and Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings.Advances in radiation oncology · 2026Article
- Assessing inter-observer variability in prostate and GTV segmentation on mpMRI: A comparison between radiation oncologists and AI-based method.Journal of applied clinical medical physics · 2026Article
- Post hoc estimation of a quantitative restriction spectrum imaging biomarker for prostate cancer detection using conventional MRI.Journal of applied clinical medical physics · 2026Article
- PURE-MRI: An international study assessing physician accuracy in delineating the prostate and urethra on prostate MRI.Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology · 2026Article
- PrecisionPro Fusion: Clinical validation of an automated, rigid, Prostate-Specific MRI-CT Fusion system for prostate radiotherapy planning.Technical innovations & patient support in radiation oncology · 2025Article
- Multidisciplinary Consensus Prostate Contours on Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Educational Atlas and Reference Standard for Artificial Intelligence Benchmarking.International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics · 2025Article
- Associations of dose to the urethra and long-term patient-reported outcomes after radiotherapy with EBRT and HDR brachytherapy boost for prostate cancer.Clinical and translational radiation oncology · 2025Article
- Microboost in Localized Prostate Cancer: Analysis of a Statewide Quality Consortium.Advances in radiation oncology · 2024Article
- Inter-Rater Variability of Prostate Lesion Segmentation on Multiparametric Prostate MRI.Biomedicines · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 9 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn a recent phase III randomized control trial, delivering a focal radiotherapy (RT) boost to tumors visible on MRI was shown to improve disease-free survival and regional/distant metastasis-free survival for patients with prostate cancer-without increasing toxicity. The aim of this study was to assess how widely this technique is being applied in current practice, as well as physicians' perceived barriers toward its implementation.
methodsWe invited radiation oncologists to complete an online questionnaire assessing their use of intraprostatic focal boost in December 2022 and February 2023. To include perspectives from a broad range of practice settings, the invitation was distributed to radiation oncologists worldwide via email list, group text platform, and social media.
results263 radiation oncologist participants responded. The highest-represented countries were the United States (42%), Mexico (13%), and the United Kingdom (8%). The majority of participants worked at an academic medical center (52%) and considered their practice to be at least partially genitourinary (GU)-subspecialized (74%). Overall, 43% of participants reported routinely using intraprostatic focal boost. Complete GU-subspecialists were more likely to implement focal boost, with 61% reporting routine use. In both high-income and low-to-middle-income countries, less than half of participants routinely use focal boost. The most cited barriers were concerns about registration accuracy between MRI and CT (37%), concerns about risk of additional toxicity (35%), and challenges to accessing high-quality MRI (29%).
conclusionsTwo years following publication of a randomized trial of patient benefit without increased toxicity, almost half of the radiation oncologists surveyed are now routinely offering focal RT boost. Further adoption of this technique might be aided by increased access to high-quality MRI, better registration algorithms of MRI to CT simulation images, physician education on benefit-to-harm ratio, and training on contouring prostate lesions on MRI.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.