Radiation helps prostate cancer survival

UMEA, Sweden, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Men with locally advanced prostate cancer will survive substantially longer when radiation is added to their treatment plan, Swedish researchers said.

Lead author Dr. Anders Widmark of Umea University in Sweden said for men with locally advanced prostate cancer the addition of radiation treatment to anti-androgen hormone therapy reduces the risk of dying of prostate cancer by 50 percent compared to those who have anti-androgen hormone treatment alone.

Locally advanced prostate cancer is cancer that has grown close to the border or outside the prostate gland and into neighboring tissue, but has not spread into the lymph nodes or to other organs.

"I would encourage men with locally advanced prostate cancer to talk to their doctor to see if they would be a good candidate for radiation therapy in addition to hormone treatment," Widmark said in a statement.

The study involved 880 patients with locally advanced prostate cancer who were randomly assigned to receive three months of intense hormone therapy -- temporary castration -- followed by continuous anti-androgen therapy, allowing the testosterone to come back or the same hormonal treatment combined with radiation therapy between February 1996 to December 2002.

The findings were presented at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 50th annual meeting in Boston.