Courtesy of Urology Care Foundation
For men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer, long-term hormone
therapy after radiation therapy provides no survival advantages compared
with short-term hormone therapy, according to a new study.
Hormone therapy is used to reduce the levels of male hormones
(androgens) such as testosterone, which can stimulate the growth of
prostate cancer cells.
Researchers examined data from 133 men with intermediate-risk
prostate cancer who underwent either long-term hormone therapy (59
patients) or short-term hormone therapy (74 patients) after receiving
external beam radiation therapy.
Ten-year overall survival was 61 percent in the short-term group and
65 percent in the long-term group, which is not a statistically
significant difference. Disease-specific survival was 96 percent in
both groups.
The study was scheduled for presentation Monday at the annual meeting
of the American Society for Radiation Oncology, in Atlanta.
"Most clinicians have felt that 'more was better' when it came to
blocking testosterone in prostate cancer patients, however, results for
the specific endpoints we focused on, OS [overall survival] and DSS
[disease-specific survival], indicate that this was clearly not the
case," study lead author Dr. Amin Mirhadi, a radiation oncologist at
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said in a society news
release.
"This data supports administering less treatment, which will result
in fewer side effects and reduce patients' overall health care costs,"
Mirhadi added.
The data and conclusions of research presented at medical meetings
should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed
journal.
More information
The Urology Care Foundation has more about hormone therapy for prostate cancer.
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