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| |  Radiation Plus Hormone Therapy Cuts Prostate Cancer Mortality by 50%: Presented at ASTRO By Martha Kerr, BSN BOSTON -- September 23, 2008 -- Radiation added to antiandrogen therapy increases prostate cancer-specific survival rates by 50% compared with hormone therapy alone for men with locally advanced disease, investigators reported at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology (ASTRO) 50th Annual Meeting. "This randomised trial is the first to show that men with locally advanced prostate cancer will survive substantially longer when radiation is added to their treatment plan," said lead investigator Anders Widmark, MD, Department of Radiation Oncology, Umea University, Umea, Sweden. The investigators compared survival and quality of life in 880 men aged a median of 67 years with locally advanced prostate cancer (78% with stage T3 disease) who were randomised to 3 months of total androgen blockade followed by continuous antiandrogen therapy or the same hormonal therapy plus external beam radiation therapy. "Our findings were surprising," Dr. Widmark said in a presentation on September 22. "Radiation therapy added to hormone therapy cut the 10-year mortality rate in half, and 18% of patients who underwent hormone therapy alone died of prostate cancer versus 8.5% of those patients who had both hormone and radiation treatment." Quality of life, as assessed by patients and their physicians 4 years later, was "slightly worse" in the arm receiving combination treatment compared with hormone therapy alone, Dr. Widmark reported. Moderate to severe urinary leakage, pain on urinating, and erectile dysfunction were more common after combination treatment than after hormonal therapy alone. "Considering the substantial survival benefit, the increase in symptoms seems to be acceptable and of small influence on quality of life 4 years after treatment," the researchers concluded. "I would encourage men with locally advanced prostate cancer to talk to their doctor to see if they would be good candidates for radiation therapy in addition to hormone treatment," Dr. Widmark advised.
[Presentation title: A Randomized Trial Comparing Antiandrogens With or Without Radiotherapy in the Treatment of Locally Advanced Prostate Cancer: Survival and QOL Outcome.]
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