Radiation
Therapy Helps Fight Prostate Cancer
Combination
Treatment A Plus
Men with prostate cancer
who receive radiation therapy within six months of surgery typically
live longer than men who do not receive early radiation treatment,
a new study finds.
"Our results show that radiation
therapy after prostate surgery helps limit the chances that the cancer
will recur, allowing patients to live longer," says Dr. Cesare Cozzarini,
a radiation oncologist at San Raffaele H. Scientific Institute in Milan,
and the study's principal investigator.
The study report is published
in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics,
a publication of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology
and Oncology.
"To my knowledge, this is
the largest study of its kind completed at a single institution," he
adds.
Prostate cancer is the second
most common malignancy affecting US men. The American Cancer Society
estimates some 230,900 new cases will be diagnosed this year, with about
29,900 deaths. Only skin cancer is more prevalent.
One American man in six will
develop prostate cancer during his lifetime and one in 32 will die from
the disease.
Understanding
of Therapy Benefits Evolving
Dr. Ronald Smialowicz, a
urologist in private practice at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San
Francisco, says, "The standard of care in prostate cancer is continuing
to evolve.
"As is now the case in the
treatment of breast cancer, the best outcomes will likely occur when
prostate cancer treatment is highly individualized and men themselves
participate in making an informed decision about what treatments they
pursue at each point in their disease and recovery process."
Dr. E. Roy Berger, founding
member of the Prostate Cancer Education Council, notes
that the Milan research and similar recent studies are moving the treatment
of prostate cancer along the same path recently traveled by breast cancer
patients and physicians.
"Five years ago, radical
mastectomy was the only way to go in breast cancer treatment," Dr.
Berger says.
"Today there's been so much
good research about the positive outcomes of other treatment approaches
that chemotherapy, radiation, and less radical surgical interventions
are widely used together - and the breast cancer survival rates are
improving," he says.
Dr. Berger believes that
"this is the same course the treatment of prostate cancer is likely
to follow, as understanding grows of the roles radiation, hormones,
and chemotherapy used together can play in saving men's lives."
Researchers
Learn About Survival Rates
The researchers examined
the records of 415 men with prostate cancer who underwent surgery to
remove their prostate and surrounding lymph nodes between 1986 and 1999
at the Institute.
Two groups of post-surgical
patients were studied. One group included men who received external
beam radiation therapy within six months of their prostate operation.
The other group included
men whose physicians followed them over time and provided radiation
therapy only if their cancers showed signs of returning.
None of the men whose records
were studied had metastatic disease - that is, cancer in areas of the
body other than the prostate.
After eight years of follow-up,
the survival rate for men receiving early radiation therapy was 69 percent,
compared to 31 percent for those who had radiation therapy more than
six months after their surgeries or not at all.
The researchers also found
that the disease remained localized in the prostate for 93 percent of
the patients in the early radiation therapy group, compared to 63 percent
in the other group.
The risk of death from localized
prostate cancer was also significantly lower for men receiving post-surgical
early radiation therapy.
Dr. Eric Horwitz, director
of the Radiation Oncology Training Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center
in Philadelphia, says the Italian study is the first to offer evidence
about whether radiation treatment soon after prostate surgery actually
improves a man's chances of survival.
"These results provide oncologists,
urologists, and radiologists with another important piece of the prostate
cancer treatment puzzle," Dr. Horwitz says. "The study included a significant
number of patients and included many follow-up details about these men
five and eight years later.
"Most importantly, it also
provides valuable information about whether they survived, not just
about their levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA), which is what
most previous studies have reported," he says.
Always consult your physician
for more information.
|
August 2004
Radiation
Therapy Helps Fight Prostate Cancer
Understanding
of Therapy Benefits Evolving
Researchers
Learn About Survival Rates
What
Is Radiation Therapy?
Online
Resources
Other
Resources:
Find
a St. John's Mercy Physician
Sports
& Therapy Services at St. John's Mercy
Men's
Health Information
St.
John's Mercy Classes and Programs
What
Is Radiation Therapy?
Radiation therapy uses high-energy
rays to kill or shrink cancer cells, and to decrease their ability to
divide.
Radiation is often used to
treat prostate cancer that is still confined to the prostate gland,
or has spread only to nearby tissue. If the disease is advanced, radiation
may be used to reduce the size of the tumor and to provide relief from
symptoms.
There are generally two types
of radiation therapy:
external radiation
(external beam therapy) - a treatment that precisely sends
high levels of radiation directly to the cancer cells. The machine is
controlled by the radiation therapist. Since radiation is used to kill
cancer cells, special shields may be used to protect the tissue surrounding
the treatment area. Radiation treatments are painless and usually last
a few minutes. This type of radiation therapy may be given daily for
several weeks.
internal radiation (implant therapy) - a procedure
that uses small, radioactive seeds (each about the size of a grain of
rice) that are implanted directly into the cancerous prostate tumor.
The implanted seeds may be left in permanently or may be only temporary.
The seeds emit small amounts of radiation for a period of weeks or months.
As each person's individual
medical profile and diagnosis is different, so is his/her reaction to
treatment. Side effects may be severe, mild, or absent. Be sure to discuss
with your cancer care team any/all possible side effects of treatment
before the treatment begins.
Possible side effects of
external beam radiation therapy for prostate cancer may include the
following:
-
diarrhea (with or without
blood in the stool) and colitis
-
problems associated
with urination
-
a degree of impotence
(inability to achieve or maintain an erection), which may occur
within two years of radiation therapy
-
fatigue, especially
during the later weeks of treatment
Possible side effects of
internal radiation therapy for prostate cancer may include the following:
Always consult your physician
for more information.
Online
Resources
American
Cancer Society
American
Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology
Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Healthfinder,
US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
National
Cancer Institute Prostate Cancer Information
National
Institutes of Health (NIH)
National
Library of Medicine
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