Just 4 months of hormone therapy can delay prostate cancer growth by up ...( Alexandria VAResearchers report that...),Health

Alexandria, VAResearchers report that just four months of hormonal therapy before and with standard external beam radiation therapy slowed cancer growth by as much as eight yearsespecially the development of bone metastasesand increased survival in older men with potentially aggressive prostate cancer. This neoadjuvant hormonal therapy may allow men most at risk of developing bone metastases avoid long-term hormonal therapy later on. Furthermore, the short-term hormonal therapy did not increase the risk of cardiovascular diseasea potential side effect of long-term hormonal therapy. The study is being published online January 2 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).

Hormonal therapycalled androgen deprivation therapy (ADT)lowers levels of cancer-fueling testosterone in the blood. It is an important treatment option for men with prostate cancer that continues to progress despite initial treatment with surgery, radiation therapy, or chemotherapy, but has been associated with side effects such as bone loss, osteoporosis, depression and an increase in cardiovascular risk factors (including blood lipids, abdominal obesity and a syndrome associated with diabetes).

This study demonstrates that the benefits of short-term hormonal therapy for men receiving radiation therapy for prostate cancer far outweigh the risks, said lead author Mack Roach III, MD, professor and chair of radiation oncology and professor of urology at the University of California, San Francisco. While four months of hormonal therapy isnt enough to cause significant side effects, we found that it can delay the development of bone metastasis by as many as eight years, which is very significant.

Starting in 1987, Radiation Therapy Oncology Group researchers studied 224 men with high-risk prostate cancer who received ADT (goserelin and flutamide) before and concurrent with external beam radiation therapy, and 232 men with the disease who received radiation therapy alone.
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