Although patients who had the ultrahypofractionated treatment suffered slightly worse side-effects at the end of treatment, long-term side-effects were the same as those experienced by patients who had the standard treatment.

Professor Widmark added: "Previous research has already shown that it's possible to increase individual doses and give them over four to five weeks. Now we have shown that we can condense the therapy further, raising the dose at each hospital visit so that the whole schedule lasts only two and half weeks.


"This is the first large patient trial of this kind and it shows that ultrahypofractionated radiotherapy is just as effective as standard radiotherapy at stopping prostate cancer from returning. Importantly, it also shows that patients treated in this way do not suffer any more side-effects than those treated with conventional radiotherapy."

The researchers plan to continue to study the patients in the trial to check whether there are differences in their survival or side-effects in the longer-term.

President of ESTRO, Professor Yolande Lievens, head of the department of radiation oncology at Ghent University Hospital, Belgium, said: "Advances in radiotherapy mean that we are better able to locate and target tumours while minimising damage to nearby organs. In prostate cancer, this can mean men retaining urinary and sexual function. This also means that we can consider giving higher individual doses over a shorter time, as in this study.

"Results of this trial suggests that ultrahypofractionated radiotherapy is equal to conventional radiotherapy. For patients, that could mean they have to spend much less time travelling to and from hospital for treatment. For health services this could help them save resources and get more patients treated sooner."

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