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posted by janrinok on Friday January 21 2022, @01:56AM   Printer-friendly

Hormone Therapy Treatments May Increase Survival Rate in Prostate Cancer Patients:

Prostate cancer is the leading cause of cancer in men worldwide, and radiotherapy is one of the common forms of treatment. In a first-of-its kind meta-analysis, published today in The Lancet Oncology, researchers from University Hospitals (UH) and Case Western Reserve University show that there is consistent improvement in overall survival in men with intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer with the addition of hormone therapy to radiotherapy treatments.

Throughout the past 40 years, randomized trials have been conducted on the impact of adding hormone therapy to prostate cancer treatments. While these trials individually show the benefit of hormone therapy, there are inconsistencies in timing and duration of treatment recommendations.

"Our research team set out to conduct a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive analysis by collecting individual patient data from each and every randomized trial conducted around the world, and performed a meta-analysis of the impact of various treatment intensification strategies using hormone therapy with radiation therapy for localized prostate cancer," said senior author Daniel E. Spratt, MD, Vincent K. Smith Chair in Radiation Oncology at UH Seidman Cancer Center, Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, and Member of the Developmental Therapeutics Program at Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. "Our goal is to better personalize therapy for prostate cancer patients, by providing the most precise and accurate estimates of the benefit of hormone therapy."

In this analysis, the team made three key discoveries:

1) Men with intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer have an increased survival rate from the addition of hormone therapy to radiotherapy. [...]

2) Survival rate in men with prostate cancer improves with the prolongation of adjuvant hormone therapy to radiotherapy. [...]

3) The prolongation of neoadjuvant hormone therapy before radiotherapy did not benefit men in any outcome measured. [...]

"We now have estimates that show the benefit of adding and prolonging adjuvant hormone therapy for clinically relevant subsets of patients," explained Dr. Spratt. "Our team showed that treating a group of approximately ten to 15 men with hormone therapy or extended adjuvant hormone therapy, for at least 18 months, prevented one man from developing metastatic disease ten years after treatment. This is dependent on patient and tumor specific factors, but gives us a more precise estimate to work with when it comes to recommending treatment options."

Journal Reference:
Amar U Kishan, MD, Yilun Sun, PhD, Holly Hartman, PhD, et al Hormone Therapy Treatments May Increase Survival Rate in Prostate Cancer Patients, , (DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(21)00705-1)


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @02:48AM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @02:48AM (#1214436)

    Should I be asking my doctor about this? Am I going to die? Can they freeze me?

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Friday January 21 2022, @02:57AM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday January 21 2022, @02:57AM (#1214438)

      Most Boomer men will be dying with prostate cancer, but not of prostate cancer.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Friday January 21 2022, @03:29PM (6 children)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 21 2022, @03:29PM (#1214502) Journal

      You too will one day be an old man. And it will happen to you faster than you can imagine. You wake up one day and realize you're in your middle age. This is when most men have their mid life crisis. OMG all the things I dreamed of doing when I was twenty are not going to work out! Sudden realization that mortality is an actual thing.

      Then a few years later, which goes by in a flash, you realize you are old. Have all kinds of old man medical issues. Aches and pains in places you didn't know you had.

      Deer Mr. Male SN Reader:

      Some subset of the following issues WILL happen TO YOU PERSONALLY:

      • greying hair
      • wrinkles everywhere (hands, face, private parts, etc)
      • urinary dribble
      • incontinence (wearing adult diapers)
      • baldness
      • kidney stones. These can hit you in mid life or even earlier and I hope you really enjoy them
      • unable to read small print (but what you call "small" print is what you once would have called "normal" print)
      • unable to recognize speech very well, yet still able to hear faint sounds
      • alternately, inability to hear all but the loudest sounds
      • loss of teeth, and/or gum and other dental problems
      • gradual loss of taste and smell. Suddenly those nasty hard candies for old people you despised as a kid are the only thing appealing
      • unable to get it up or keep it up for very long
      • arthritis -- pain, every day, all the time; and as a bonus possibly even crippling arthritis where you need a cane to walk, or simply can no longer walk
      • joint problems. Again, everything hurts. Joints don't work well. Maybe your knees won't hold you up any more. Etc.
      • various cancers, not just prostate cancer. Throat. Lung. Other organs. Maybe in your testicles young whipersnapper.
      • potentially prostate cancer surgery, where you no longer can even get it up at all ever, accompanied by shrinking of the genitals
      • . . . there's probably more, but those are the ones I think of off the top of my head. But google is your friend. Hopefully some helpful soylental will augment this list.

      So go ahead and laugh all you want. Have a great time.

      Some subset (including possibly the entire set) of the above items WILL HAPPEN TO YOU TOO. Count on it. Guaranteed.

      It will creep up on you faster than you can imagine.

      I can't personally tell you about all of these wonderful things I have listed. But I can tell about a great drug that fixes two of them. Cialis (yellow pill [forget that stupid blue pill]) fixes getting it up for 36 hours, and also fixes that dribble when you pee. I can't imagine what it would be like for men before such a drug.

      Am I going to die? Can they freeze me?

      1. Yes, absolutely guaranteed
      2. You'll wish, but no, they cannot

      I hope that helps. I hope your older self can send a message back in time to you right now along with an enclosed plastic baggie of empathy.

      --
      Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @04:06PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @04:06PM (#1214520)

        Blah blah blah - hey, when do we become boring old cnuts who complain about everything?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @04:49PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @04:49PM (#1214525)

          Already done!

        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 21 2022, @04:52PM (1 child)

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 21 2022, @04:52PM (#1214529) Journal

          What I wrote is less of a complaint and more of an alert to younger people who may not realize the joys of getting old which awaits them. And will come upon them sooner than they expect.

          --
          Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
          • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 21 2022, @05:53PM

            by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 21 2022, @05:53PM (#1214553) Journal

            Some subset (including possibly the entire set) of the above items WILL HAPPEN TO YOU TOO.

            There is a way to avoid all of that. But, only the good die young.

            --
            “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @06:41PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @06:41PM (#1214567)

        unable to read small print (but what you call "small" print is what you once would have called "normal" print)

        I kept upping the font in my editor. It's 22 pt. now. It still fits 80 columns because screens have lots of pixels now. I forget what the default font was, but it was definitely too damned small. I'm probably one prescription away from bifocals at 53. Sucks, but getting old is better than dying at 40.

        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 21 2022, @08:46PM

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 21 2022, @08:46PM (#1214607) Journal

          getting old is better than dying at 40.

          Yes. It is.

          Despite getting some subset of the typical old people problems. Life can still be fun.

          --
          Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @03:53AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @03:53AM (#1214451)

    Androgen deprivation therapy is an intervention to reduce testosterone. One of the sub-variants can involve LHRH so it could be hormone therapy... But the study doesn't distinguish on that basis. It lumps together surgical and chemical (LHRH and antiandrogens) options while looking at the adjuvant vs. neoadjuvant vs. non ADT course length variants.

    Moreover, we already knew ADT works from decades worth of studies and meta studies. The big news here is that NADT doesn't work. That is, cancerous tissue doesn't shrink when testosterone levels are reduced. It only shrinks from the radiotherapy, and the reduction in testosterone slows down its regrowth so it becomes more likely it won't regrow and survive between radiotherapy sessions.

    So, poor coverage and misleading title.

  • (Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Friday January 21 2022, @06:17AM (1 child)

    by MIRV888 (11376) on Friday January 21 2022, @06:17AM (#1214461)

    Any productive info regarding prostate cancer treatment is aces with me.
    It runs in the family.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 21 2022, @03:33PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 21 2022, @03:33PM (#1214504) Journal

      Getting hormone replacement might make one feel better even if they don't have any prostate problems.

      I've had past doctors offer me hormones a dozen or so years ago, but I didn't bite. I felt fine then and don't regret passing it up now. If I wanted it, I'm sure I could still ask for it.

      If it runs in the family, hopefully a doctor has advised you to be tested or examined on some regular basis.

      --
      Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
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