Stats favor five-year prostate survivors

NEW YORK, July 6 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say prostate cancer patients disease-free after five years will likely be disease-free after 10 years.

The study of prostate cancer patients receiving brachytherapy, published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, finds cancer recurrences at 10 years unlikely in those who were deemed disease free at five years.

Brachytherapy is either the temporary or permanent placement of radioactive sources in or just next to a tumor.

"Our data have indicated that improvements in treatment are continuing and that these will continue to have an effect on prostate brachytherapy data for years to come," lead author Dr. Richard Stock of The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York says in a statement.

"Late failure rates will continue to decrease, making prostate brachytherapy alone and combined with hormonal therapy and/or external beam radiation therapy an increasingly attractive treatment option."

The study followed 742 prostate cancer patients treated with brachytherapy alone, brachytherapy and hormonal therapy, or combined brachytherapy and external beam radiotherapy from 1991 to 2002.

None of these patients had recurrences during their first five years post-treatment. Prostate-specific antigen level taken at five years was an indicator of how well a patient would do in the future and the overall chance of being cancer free at 10 years was 97 percent, the study said.