Prostate cancer

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Short-term hormone therapy, aimed at knocking down testosterone levels, given before and during radiation treatment of locally advanced prostate cancer reduces the risk of relapse, researchers from Australia and New Zealand report.

Testosterone reduction, known as androgen deprivation, is an established treatment for prostate cancer that has spread to other areas of the body, but its value in treating advanced disease that's still confined to the prostate has been unclear, Dr. James W. Denham, of the University of Newcastle, Australia and his associates explain in an online publication of The Lancet Oncology.

The researches therefore studied the effect of androgen deprivation in men with locally advanced prostate cancer. The study included 270 men who were assigned to radiation therapy alone, 265 assigned to 3 months of anti-androgen hormone therapy, and 267 assigned to 6 months of the hormone treatment.

Compared with radiation therapy alone, androgen deprivation was associated with reduced rate of cancer progression at 5 years, with a reduction in risk of 44 percent for 3 months of hormone treatment and 58 percent with 6 months of treatment.

For the other main outcome measure, the odds of dying from prostate cancer, only 6 months of treatment led to significant improvement at 5 years.

"Further follow-up," the researchers conclude, is needed "to estimate the precise magnitude of the survival benefit gained with 6 months' androgen deprivation."