Prostate Cancer Hormone Therapy Duration Halved With Same Effects

Get New Treatments Alerts:

Undergo hormone therapy for localized prostate cancer for half the duration …

Seems like shorter treatments for prostate cancer are as effective as longer duration treatments if the results of a new study on prostate cancer are anything to go by, reports NYTimes.

This may well change the standard of care

Says Dr. Bruce J. Roth, prostate cancer specialist at Washington University, St. Louis.

The study involved comparing effect of prostate cancer treatment durations. Groups of participants were treated with 18 months of hormone therapy and 36 months of the same therapy.

- 630 patients with localized high risk prostate cancer

- They were treated with radiation therapy and hormone therapy.

- Median follow up after 6.5 years

77.1% of participants who received 36 months of therapy were alive
76.2% of men treated for 18 months survived

- Survival rates after 10 years did not show statistically significant difference.

- Death rate from prostate cancer was also similar in both groups.

- Difference in quality of life of both groups is still being investigated.

The oncologists are approaching the study findings with caution,

Dr. Michael J. Morris, Associate professor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, says,

63 patients might be too few to draw a relatively sweeping conclusion. A study meant to prove that two treatments are equivalent may need to be much larger.

Dr. David I. Quinn, medical director of University of Southern California Norris Cancer Hospital, says,

The results will change the approach for men who’ve got the worst localized prostate cancer that we see.

Principal investigator of the study, Dr Nabid is optimistic that the study results would hold through the two or three years of follow up of patients, that remain.