Other eligibility criteria were no nodes involvement present at Computer Tomography (CT) or Magnetic Resonance imaging, no other previous radiotherapy (RT) or prostatectomy, no other malignant disease

except for Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) or other tumors in the past five years, informed consent. Patients received hormonal treatment (HT), in addition to RT, two months before; Casodex (non-steroidal anti-androgen) was administered for 270 days, Zoladex (analogous Goserelin) was started 7 days after the start of Casodex and was administered at the 7th, 97th and 187th day. The clinical and pathological features of the two groups of patients are reported in Table 1. The baseline recorded #Selleck C646 randurls[1|1|,|CHEM1|]# characteristics were age, initial PSA values

(≤ 10, between 11 and 20 and > 20 ng/mL), stage ( 6). The differences between groups were tested using chi-square. Table 1 Clinical and pathological features of the two patients populations Characteristics Arm A Arm B p value Age     0,922 < 70 8 7   71-75 23 22   > 75 26 28   Stage     1,000 27 26   ≥ T2c 30 31   Gleason Score     0,392 ≤ 6 9 5   > 6 48 52   initial PSA     0,400 ≤ 10 18 14   11-20 20 17   > 20 19 26   Contouring, planning and treatment The clinical target volume (CTV) was the prostatic gland and the seminal vescicles; the planning selleck kinase inhibitor target volume (PTV) was obtained by expanding CTV with a margin of 1 cm in each direction, and of 0.6 cm posteriorly. Rectum was manually contoured from the distal ischiatic branch to the sigmoid flexure as a hollow organ, i.e. rectal wall. In addition bladder wall and femoral heads were contoured. Dose calculations were performed using the treatment planning system Eclipse (Release 6.5, Varian Associates, Palo Alto, CA),

to deliver the prescribed dose to the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) reference point [12], with a minimum dose of 95% and a maximum dose of 107% to the PTV. Dose-volume constraints on rectal wall were: no more than 30% of rectal wall receiving more than 70 Gy (V70) and no more than 50% of rectal wall receiving more than 50 Gy (V50) for the conventional arm; no more than 30% of rectal wall receiving more than 54 Gy (V54) and Adenosine triphosphate no more than 50% of rectal wall receiving more than 38 Gy (V38) for the hypo-fractionated arm. Dose-volume constraints on bladder wall were: V70 less than 50% for the conventional arm and V54 less than 50% for the hypo-fractionated arm. Maximum dose on femoral head was, whenever achievable, less than 55 Gy and 42 Gy for arm A and arm B, respectively. Safer dose volume constraints in the hypofractionation arm were intentionally chosen; that is as if the equivalence was calculated with an α/β value lower than 3 Gy. Treatment plans were designed with a 3DCRT (three dimensional conformal radiation therapy) six field technique, with gantry angles: 45°, 90°, 135°, 225°, 270°, 315°.