TUESDAY, Nov. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Long-term survival may be increased in medium-risk prostate cancer patients who receive short-term androgen deprivation therapy before and during radiation treatment compared with men who receive radiation alone. In addition, proton beam therapy may be associated with a decreased risk of disease recurrence after 10 years and has minimal side effects after one year, according to research presented at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology, held from Nov. 1 to 5 in Chicago.

Christopher U. Jones, M.D., of Radiological Associates of Sacramento in California, and colleagues randomly assigned men with localized prostate cancer and a prostate-specific antigen of 20 or less to receive total androgen deprivation therapy two months prior to and two months during radiation treatment, or radiation treatment alone. After a median follow-up of 8.4 years, they found that estimated overall 12-year survival was higher in the combination therapy group than in the radiation-only group (51 versus 46 percent), observing the survival benefit in intermediate-risk but not in low-risk men.

Carl J. Rossi Jr., M.D., of Loma Linda University Medical Center in California, and colleagues found that a "boost" of proton beam therapy after standard radiation therapy was associated with a lower 10-year risk of cancer recurrence than standard radiation therapy alone in both low-risk men (6 versus 29 percent) and intermediate-risk men (37 versus 45 percent). Nancy Mendenhall, M.D., of the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute in Jacksonville, and colleagues found that proton beam therapy was associated with minimal urinary and rectal side effects after one year.

"At this point, we can say that early tolerance of proton therapy has been excellent, with a very low rate of urinary and rectal toxicity," Mendenhall said in a statement.

Abstract - Jones
Abstract - Rossi
Abstract - Mendenhall
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