GEC-ESTRO Urology

The UROGEC group works in close collaboration with Braphyqs holding joint meetings at which common areas of work are discussed. It has a wide ranging portfolio of work packages including:

Randomised trial of focal prostate brachytherapy developed by UROGEC. The chief investigator is Bradley Pieters with funding from the Dutch Cancer Society. The trial design is a prospective two arm open randomised trial comparing hemigland and whole gland prostate brachytherapy using either LDR or HDR with the primary endpoint of erectile function. The accrual target is s total of 220 patients.

LDR BT TURP study was a prospective study to evaluate urinary function in patients undergoing LDR brachytherapy for prostate cancer who had undergone a previous TURP which has completed and is now being prepared for publication.

Salvage brachytherapy is increasingly being offered across Europe. UROGEC plan a prospective database to collect a large multicentre series of patients to provide robust data on efficacy and aid guidelines for patient selection.

Urinary toxicity is relatively common and current guidelines focus on urethral constraints as a planning objective to minimise urinary toxicity. We are seeking to explore other constraints which may have more relevance to bladder function for example trigone dose to help define new tolerance doses for these regions.

UROGEC is actively involved in developing and updating guidelines for brachytherapy in urological cancers. These include:

LDR prostate

Ash D, Flynn A, Battermann J, de Reijke T, Lavagnini P, Blank L; ESTRO/EAU Urological Brachytherapy Group; EORTC Radiotherapy Group. ESTRO/EAU/EORTC recommendations on permanent seed implantation for localized prostate cancer. Radiother Oncol. 2000 Dec;57(3):315-21

Salembier C, Lavagnini P, Nickers P, Mangili P, Rijnders A, Polo A, Venselaar J, Hoskin P; GEC ESTRO PROBATE Group. Tumour and target volumes in permanent prostate brachytherapy: a supplement to the ESTRO/EAU/EORTC recommendations on prostate brachytherapy. Radiother Oncol. 2007 Apr;83(1):3-10

HDR prostate

Hoskin PJ, Colombo A, Henry A, Niehoff P, Paulsen Hellebust T, Siebert FA, Kovacs G GEC/ESTRO recommendations on high dose rate afterloading brachytherapy for localised prostate cancer: an update. Radiother Oncol. 2013 Jun;107(3):325-32

Prostate outlining guidelines

Salembier C, Villeirs G, De Bari B, Hoskin P, Pieters BR, Van Vulpen M, Khoo V, Henry A, Bossi A, De Meerleer G, Fonteyne V. ESTRO ACROP consensus guideline on CT- and MRI-based target volume delineation for primary radiation therapy of localized prostate cancer. Radiother Oncol. 2018 Apr;127(1):49-61

Bladder

Pieters BR, van der Steen-Banasik E, Smits GA, De Brabandere M, Bossi A, Van Limbergen E

GEC-ESTRO/ACROP recommendations for performing bladder-sparing treatment with brachytherapy for muscle-invasive bladder carcinoma. Radiother Oncol. 2017 Mar;122(3):340-346

Penile

Crook JM, Haie-Meder C, Demanes DJ, Mazeron JJ, Martinez AA, Rivard MJ American Brachytherapy Society-Groupe Européen de Curiethérapie-European Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology (ABS-GEC-ESTRO) consensus statement for penile brachytherapy.

Brachytherapy. 2013 May-Jun;12(3):191-8

Outlining

UROGEC core membership 2018-2019

Peter Hoskin, UK, chair
Roberto Alonzi, UK
Shafak Aluwini, NL
Alberto Bossi, F
Simon Buus, DK
Alfonso Gomez-Iturriaga, ES
Benjamin Guix, ES
Ann Henry, UK
Bengt Johansson, SE
Metha Maenhout, NL
Peter Niehoff, DE
Bradley Peters, NL
Carl Salembier, BE
Nikos Tselis, DE