New hope for men with advanced prostate cancer
January 24th, 2009 Posted in prostate cancer, prostatectomy, radiation therapyProstate cancer affects more than 200,000 men a year. About 1/3 of men who have surgery to remove the cancer are at risk of it coming back.
After 21 years of research, Dr. Ian Thompson and his team at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio believe they may finally know how to stop it. The study found men who underwent radiation therapy immediately after their surgeries greatly increased their chance of survival and delays recurrance of the disease by almost a decade
“We now know that the radiation significantly improves the cure rate,” said Dr. Thompson. It delays the chance for recurrence by, on average, 7 years.”
High-risk patients are men whose cancer was found on the edge of the prostate or outside of it. Now, finally there’s hope for thousands of men.