Brachytherapy for prostate cancer (PCa) is associated with favorable 15-year cancer-specific survival, particularly in patients with high-risk disease, a study found.
In addition, brachytherapy patients who receive hormone therapy for more than 6 months have decreased all-cause survival.
Nelson N. Stone, MD, and Richard G. Stock, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, studied 1,669 men who underwent brachytherapy for T1–T3 PCa. The study group had a mean follow-up of 10 years. A total of 898 patients (53.8%) received hormone therapy for a median of 6 months.
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The cohort overall had a 15-year cancer-specific survival rate of 94.1%. The cancer-specific survival rates for men with low-, intermediate-, and high-risk disease were 96.3%, 97.5%, and 85.2%, respectively, according to findings published in The Journal of Urology (2014;192:754–759). Hormone therapy had no positive effect on cancer-specific survival.
The 15-year all-cause survival rate was 57%. At 15 years, hormone therapy significantly decreased all-cause survival from 60.3% to 54.9%, the researchers reported. Hormone therapy for 6 months or less did not reduce all-cause survival.
Pre-existing diabetes, atrial fibrillation, and emphysema were associated with lower all-cause survival rates.
