Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) prior to radical prostatectomy (RP) for high-risk prostate cancer has the potential to completely eliminate the tumors and improve outcomes, researchers concluded.
Jae Young Joung, MD, and colleagues at the National Cancer Center in Goyang, South Korea, performed a retrospective study that included 111 men who received ADT prior to RP for high-risk prostate cancer. Of these, 6 (5.4%) were found to have no residual tumor (pT0 disease) in the surgical specimen. During a median follow-up of 59 months, all 6 patients were alive and none of the patients experienced biochemical recurrence (BCR). Among the 105 patients in the non-pT0 group, 60 (57.1%) experienced BCR. The median time to BCR was 14 months. The 5-year clinical progression-free and metastasis-free survival rates were 86.2% and 87.2%, respectively. The 5-year overall and cancer-specific survival rates were 91.5% and 97.7%, respectively.
“Our results indicate that ADT can induce a complete pathological response, and can potentially eradicate advanced prostate cancer,” the investigators wrote in BMC Urology (2015;15:82).
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The patients with pT0 disease were significantly older than the non-pT0 patients (73.5 vs. 66.0 years), but otherwise the groups had similar clinical features.
