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Patients who undergo radiotherapy immediately following surgery to remove the prostate have a better chance at surviving and keeping the disease from progressing, according to a study presented October 26 at the annual meeting of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology in Grenoble, France.
If detected early enough, the likelihood of curing prostate cancer is high. Surgical removal of the prostate, or prostatectomy, is one of the standard treatments for localized prostate cancer.
Researchers studied the effect of radiotherapy given within four months versus a wait-and-see policy following such surgery. Of 1,005 patients, 503 men received conventional external beam radiotherapy over six weeks following surgery, while the remaining 502 men received no radiotherapy.
Biological progression-free survival at five years after surgery was 72.2% in patients who had received radiotherapy and 51.8% in patients who had prostatectomy alone. This outcome was measured by the level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in the blood.
Clinical progression-free survival, where the disease has not spread to other sites or where no tumor was detectable by endo-rectal examination, was improved from 74.8% to 83.3% at five years in men who received radiotherapy.
The incidence of local disease recurrence was also significantly decreased following radiotherapy.
"Based on these results I would recommend that all men with high risk of local failure after prostatectomy should be considered for immediate post-operative radiotherapy", said Professor Michel Bolla, of CHU de Grenoble. "This approach has clear benefits that outweigh the risk of side effects which occur in a small proportion of men."
Source: Medical Week staff, week of November 6, 2004
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