Many Prostate Cancers Will Not Need Treatment

A second study presented at the conference found that giving salvage radiation therapy (SRT) to men whose PSA levels rise after having their prostate removed can reduce their risk of dying from the cancer by more than 60 percent.

SRT is typically given only after a recurrence, not after an initial diagnosis of prostate cancer, noted study lead author Dr. Bruce Trock, associate professor of urology, epidemiology, oncology and environmental health sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Existing studies have either not been large enough or long enough in duration to determine if SRT prolongs survival.

In this retrospective analysis of 635 men who had experienced a recurrence after having their prostate removed, 62 percent of those who did not receive any salvage therapy were still alive after 10 years, versus 86 percent of those who received SRT and 82 percent of those who received SRT plus hormone therapy.

Men whose PSA doubling time (the amount of time it took for PSA levels to double from when in first becomes detectable) was six months or less had the greatest benefit.

"If another study was able to replicate our data, it could lead to clinical trial that would eventually support a way to determine who should get immediate adjuvant radiation and who could wait until the time of recurrence to have SRT," Trock said. "The question is, could a benefit be achieved in some of these men if you waited to see whether they recurred or not?"

More information

There's more on prostate cancer at U.S. National Cancer institute.

SOURCES: Feb. 12, 2008, teleconference with Grace Lu-Yau, Ph.D., cancer epidemiologist, Cancer Institute of New Jersey and associate professor, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and School of Public Health, and Bruce Trock, M.D., associate professor, urology, epidemiology, oncology and environmental health sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore