Radiation After Surgery Helps Prostate Cancer Patients Live Longer

Newswise — Prostate cancer patients who receive radiation therapy within six months after surgery live longer than patients who do not receive radiation afterwards, according to a new study in the July 1, 2004, issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of ASTRO, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.

Between 1986 and 1999, 415 patients underwent surgery to remove their prostate and surrounding lymph nodes. The patients were then split into two groups " those who were scheduled for external beam radiation therapy within six months of surgery and those who would be followed over time and possibly undergo radiation therapy later if the cancer showed signs of returning. None of the patients showed any evidence of metastatic disease.

Within eight years, prostate specific antigen tests on the patients revealed that 69 percent of patients who received radiation therapy within six months of surgery showed no signs of the prostate cancer returning while 31 percent of patients who did not have radiation at all or had radiation after the cancer recurred. Researchers also found that the disease remained localized in the prostate for 93 percent of the patients in the radiation therapy group compared with 63 percent in the other. The risk of death from localized prostate cancer was also significantly lower in the radiation therapy group.

"To my knowledge, this is the largest study of its kind completed at a single institution," said Cesare Cozzarini, M.D., a radiation oncologist at San Raffaele H. Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy. "The results show that radiation therapy after surgery helps limit the chances that the cancer will recur allowing prostate patients to live longer."

For more information on radiation therapy for prostate cancer, please visit http://www.astro.org/patient/treatment_information/ for a free brochure.

ASTRO is the largest radiation oncology society in the world, with more than 7,500 members who specialize in treating patients with radiation therapies. As a leading organization in radiation oncology, biology and physics, the Society is dedicated to the advancement of the practice of radiation oncology by promoting excellence in patient care, providing opportunities for educational and professional development, promoting research and disseminating research results and representing radiation oncology in a rapidly evolving socioeconomic healthcare environment.