Timing of Androgen Deprivation Therapy and its Impact on Cancer-specific Survival after Radical Prostatectomy: A Matched-cohort Analysis (Abstract 601)

Adjuvant androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) can improve survival following radiation therapy or radical prostatectomy. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota conducted a study that focused on 6,401 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy between 1990 and 1999 with node-negative prostate cancer. Patients were divided into five groups: those who underwent ADT in the adjuvant setting; those with ADT initiated at PSA greater or equal to 0.4 ng/ml, ADT initiated at PSA greater or equal to 1 ng/ml. ADT initiated at PSA greater or equal to 2 ng/ml and ADT at systemic progression. Median follow-up for the cohort was 10 years.

The study found that patients who underwent adjuvant ADT experienced improved 10-year systematic progression-free survival (95 percent vs. 90 percent) and 10-year cancer-specific survival (98 percent vs. 95 percent) compared to patients who did not undergo adjuvant ADT. The results do not dictate whether the initiation of ADT at any other stage can impact survival, although the survival advantage was found to diminish if ADT is administered farther in the disease process. These findings do, however, support the immediate use of ADT in high-risk radical prostatectomy patients while suggesting the limitations of ADT in enhancing survival after prostate-specific antigen progression.

This abstract will be presented during Podium Session 20 on Sunday, May 20 2007 starting at 3:30 p.m.