Prostate cancer 'can be held back for eight years'

Published on Wednesday 2 January 2008 20:55

PROSTATE cancer can be held back for up to eight years by an early short course of hormone treatment, according to new research.

Given alongside radiotherapy, it can help men with potentially aggressive cancer to live longer, say scientists.

Just four months of hormone therapies – which lower levels of testosterone or block its effect – had a dramatic effect when given at an early stage before and during standard radiotherapy.

In 40 per cent of trial pat-ients who had "neoadjuvant" hormonal therapy there was a delay of up to eight years in the time it took for cancer to spread to their bones.

After a decade, 11 per cent of men given the treatment were free of cancer, compared with 3 per cent of those who underwent radiotherapy alone.

Prostate cancer death rates at ten years were 23 per cent against 36 per cent for the radiotherapy-only group.

Hormone treatments prevent the male hormone testosterone fuelling pro-state cancer. Usually they are only given when surgery and radiation treatment have failed to work.

However, long-term hormone treatment can have serious side-effects including an increased risk of heart disease.

Professor Mack Roach, from the University of California at San Francisco, who led the new research involving more than 450 patients, said: "This study demonstrates that the benefits of short-term hormonal therapy for men receiving radiation therapy for prostate cancer far outweigh the risks.

"While four months of hormonal therapy isn't enough to cause significant side-effects, we found that it can delay the development of bone metastasis (spread] by as many as eight years, which is very significant."