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Adding radiotherapy to hormone therapy improves survival of men with high-risk prostate cancer
Adding radiotherapy to hormone therapy improves survival
of men with high-risk prostate cancer
3 November 2011
The results of a large trial have shown that treating men with
high-risk prostate cancer with external-beam radiotherapy in
addition to hormone therapy improves survival, compared to hormone
therapy alone. These results are important as there are over 10,000
deaths from prostate cancer each year in the UK alone.
The randomised controlled trial, known in the UK as MRC
PR07, recruited patients between 1995 and 2005. It involved
1,205 patients with locally-advanced prostate cancer (which had
grown outside the surface of the prostate but had not spread
further). Half were treated with hormone therapy and the other half
were treated with a combination of the same hormone therapy and a
course of radiotherapy.
The researchers found that 74 per cent of men who received both
radiotherapy and hormone therapy were still alive after seven
years, compared with 66 per cent of those who did not receive
radiotherapy. The study also showed that those who received
radiotherapy were about half as likely to die from their disease.
The additional side-effects from the radiotherapy given in the
trial were minimal.
Radiotherapy with hormone therapy is a common approach to
treating locally-advanced prostate cancer. However, some men with
locally-advanced prostate cancer are treated with hormone therapy
alone. The evidence now available shows that radiotherapy (given in
addition to hormone therapy) does improve survival, so this should
be the standard of care for these men.
The Lancet published these results in November 2011 . The
implications of these results for treating men with
locally-advanced prostate cancer are discussed in a policy
brief.
The PR07 trial results provide strong evidence that using a
combination of radiotherapy and hormone therapy can improve the
survival of men with locally advanced prostate cancer.
However, there are still many questions about what the optimal
treatment strategies are for prostate cancer. Ongoing clinical
trials are essential to answering these questions. For example, the
STAMPEDE
trial is examining how to further improve survival in men
starting long-term hormone therapy (including men like those in
PR07 and who are having radiotherapy) by adding one or two of four
new drugs; the PATCH
trial is examining alternative methods of providing hormone
therapy to the same group of men; the RADICALS
trial is examining the best timing of radiotherapy in men who
have had prostate surgery.
The PR07 trial registration number is ISRCTN24991896.
Further information
