An international trial involving over 1,200 prostate cancer patients from both Britain and Canada suggests that as prostate cancer treatment goes, two might be better than one.
The men had all been diagnosed with locally advanced prostate cancer, often considered incurable because the disease had spread to surrounding tissues and the tumor was not resectable because it was too large to remove safely.
The trial had two arms:
-- One arm received combination therapy: radiation and hormone therapy
-- One arm received hormone therapy only
According to a paper published in The Lancet, seven years after initiating treatment, 74 percent of men who received combination treatment were still alive, compared to 66 percent of the men who received only hormone therapy.
The lead researcher on the study, Padraig Warde of Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital, said, "Based on these results, we believe adding radiation to the treatment plan should become part of the standard therapy."
