HOUSTON, March 16 (UPI) -- Radiation therapy can save the lives of many men whose prostate cancer -- even the most aggressive -- has returned after surgery, scientists said Tuesday.
"Radiation treatment ought to be considered for many of these patients," said Dr. Kevin Slawin, professor of urology and director of the Prostate Center at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Traditionally, doctors have considered incurable men whose cancer recurs following surgery, but the new findings indicate many of these patients can still be treated with radiotherapy, the investigators reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Of 501 patients treated with radiation when their cancer returned after surgery, 250 had a recurrence over the next 45 months, 49 experienced malignancy that spread to a distant site, 20 died of prostate cancer, 21 died of unknown causes, and the remaining 161 remained cancer-free.
