RespiteMatch.com Health Blog

By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY

Treating certain prostate cancer patients with radiation immediately after surgery helps them live longer without a relapse, a new report says.
In a study of nearly 500 men who had surgery for prostate cancer, doctors compared men who also had radiation with those who had surgery only. Over 10 years, radiation reduced the risk that the disease would return by 25%, according to findings presented Monday in Denver at the annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.

Radiation also helped some men avoid taking hormone suppression therapy, a treatment that often causes impotence. Other men who had radiation were able to delay hormone treatments. (Related item: Study gives credence to ‘targeted’ therapy for cancer)

Gregory Swanson, lead author of the study and a radiation oncologist with the Southwest Oncology Group, says these men were at high risk because their tumors had grown beyond their prostate glands. “To see a 25% reduction in recurrence of any cancer is considered a major breakthrough,” Swanson said in a statement about the study. “As cancer doctors, we should be quite impressed.”

Swanson recommends that men discuss the radiation option with their doctors.

Walter Curran, who is chairman of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group but was not involved in the study, says reducing the number of prostate cancer patients who relapse is important, given how many men develop the disease. Nearly 233,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year, the American Cancer Society says.

The study’s authors note that men had more side effects, such as urinary problems, during radiation treatments compared with men who did not have radiation. After two years, all men enjoyed about the same quality of life, with no additional side effects.

Durado Brooks, director of prostate cancer at the cancer society, says the study fails to answer crucial questions, such as which men really need the additional radiation. He also wonders how long the men who had radiation suffered from the additional side effects.

Brooks says he would like to see additional studies comparing men treated with radiation with those who receive hormone therapy, as well as those who opt for “watchful waiting” instead of treatment.