Evaluation of late rectal toxicity after conformal radiotherapy for prostate cancer

To analyze the reliability of different methods used in evaluating the risk of late rectal toxicity. The treatment plans of 57 patients treated at the authors' institute between September 1999 and September 2000 for localized prostate cancer using three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) were analyzed retrospectively. The expected rate of late rectal toxicity was analyzed (a) by means of the dose-volume histogram (DVH) constraints; (b)...