Role of early proctoscopy in predicting late symptomatic proctitis after external radiation therapy for prostate carcinoma.

Purpose: To determine whether acute radiation-proctitis, diagnosed by proctoscopy after radiation therapy for prostate cancer, can predict late clinical proctitis.

Methods And Materials: A prospective study of 130 patients who underwent external radiation therapy (RT) for stage T1 to T4 prostate cancer between 1997 and 2008 was performed. Treatments were conventional (2-dimensional [2D]) in 61 patients and 3D conformal in 69, with a median target dose of 72 Gy (70-74 Gy).