I was a bit puzzled by the PCa news in the Times this morning [1]:
"Hormone Blockers Can Prolong Life if Prostate Cancer Recurs"
"The medical term for blocking male hormones is chemical castration ..."
"Men whose prostate cancer comes back after surgery are more likely to survive if, along with the usual radiation, they also take drugs to block male hormones."
For a while it seemed as though I should have begun Lupron after my RP failure 12 years ago.
But towards the end of the story, we learn that the new study used Casodex.
"The study, paid for by the National Cancer Institute, showed that among men who received radiation and hormonal treatment, 76.3 percent were still alive after 12 years, compared to 71.3 percent who had radiation alone."
"Other hormone-blocking drugs like Lupron have mostly taken its place, and may be even more effective, Dr. Zietman said."
???
Lupron was FDA-approved in 1985 & replaced DES.
Casodex was approved in 1995.
Perhaps Zietman - "an author of the study" - was misquoted? But I hate the idea than men with RP failure will be rushing to Lupron & expecting increased survival.
...
Here is what the study paper states [2]:
"The addition of 24 months of antiandrogen therapy with daily bicalutamide to salvage radiation therapy resulted in significantly higher rates of long-term overall survival and lower incidences of metastatic prostate cancer and death from prostate cancer than radiation therapy plus placebo."
(I wish I had known that 12 years ago.)
...
Sometimes, an account of a study can shed light when the paper's Abstract gives nothing away, but the source paper is usually well-written & unambiguous.
-Patrick
Interesting report on the efficacy of IMRT on prostate cancer
