The sequence of hormonal therapy and radiation affects outcomes in men treated for prostate cancer

A common treatment for men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer is to combine radiation with drugs that block testosterone — a hormone that makes the tumors grow faster. (This type of treatment is also called androgen deprivation therapy, or ADT). New research is suggesting the sequence of these treatments may be crucially important. Dr. Dan Spratt, a professor of radiation oncology at the University of Michigan, led the research. He and his colleagues pooled data from two previously published clinical trials (here and here). Taken together, the studies enrolled just over 1,000 men who had been randomly assigned to one of two groups: hormonal therapy given before radiation (followed in all cases by both treatments given together), or hormonal therapy that started either concurrently with radiation and then continued after it was finished, or that started only after the radiation treatments were completed. By themselves, the individual studies didn’t show a significant difference in outcomes after an average follow-up of nearly 15 years. But by pooling the data, Spratt’s team produced a dataset with enough statistical power to show that men who started on hormonal therapy either during or after radiation did significantly better in all respects: compared to the men who were treated with hormone therapy first, they had lesser odds of experiencing a rise in prostate-specific antigen levels (suggesting the cancer might be returning); they lived longer without a ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Living With Prostate Cancer Prostate Knowledge Treatments HPK Source Type: blogs