Longer treatment is better for prostate cancer
June 13th, 2009 Posted in prostate cancerA research team reported on Wednesday that men with locally advanced prostate cancer are more likely to die if their doctors shorten the time they are treated with hormone-suppressing drugs.
The research team, led by Dr. Michael Bolla of Grenoble University Hospital in France, found that by every measure, those who stayed on the hormone suppression medicine longer did better than those who received the short-term treatment.
Long-term therapy had some significant drawbacks, producing more hot flashes, lower libido and reduced sexual activity. However, it is not clear whether the treatment is also best for smaller, localized prostate cancers, the kind most often diagnosed today thanks to better screening.
The new study is published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine,