Timing of androgen deprivation therapy and its impact on survival after radical prostatectomy: a matched cohort study

J Urol. 2008 May;179(5):1830-7; discussion 1837. doi: 10.1016/j.juro.2008.01.022. Epub 2008 Mar 18.

Abstract

Purpose: We assessed the impact of the timing of androgen deprivation on disease progression after radical prostatectomy for patients with localized prostate cancer.

Materials and methods: We evaluated all patients who underwent radical prostatectomy between 1990 and 1999. Patients with pathological lymph node negative disease who received androgen deprivation therapy were then separated into 5 groups for analysis based on the time of hormone therapy initiation: 1--adjuvant androgen deprivation, 2--androgen deprivation therapy started at a postoperative prostate specific antigen of 0.4 ng/ml or greater, 3--at prostate specific antigen 1.0 or greater, 4--at prostate specific antigen 2.0 or greater and 5--at systemic progression. The first 4 groups were matched by clinical and pathological features to control groups who did not receive androgen deprivation after surgery using a nested, matched cohort design. Median followup for the entire cohort was 10 years. Clinical end points included systemic progression-free survival and cancer specific survival.

Results: After matching clinicopathological variables adjuvant androgen deprivation therapy was associated with improved 10-year systemic progression-free survival (95% vs 90%, p <0.001) and 10-year cancer specific survival (98% vs 95%, p = 0.009), although overall survival for these patients remained unchanged (84% vs 83%, p = 0.427). In contrast, we found that men who started hormonal therapy at a postoperative prostate specific antigen of 0.4 or greater, 1.0 or 2.0 did not have improved systemic progression-free or cancer specific survival.

Conclusions: Adjuvant hormonal therapy modestly improves cancer specific survival and systemic progression-free survival after prostatectomy. The benefit of hormone therapy is lost when androgen deprivation is delivered at the time of prostate specific antigen recurrence or systemic progression.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Androgen Antagonists / therapeutic use*
  • Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal / therapeutic use*
  • Chemotherapy, Adjuvant
  • Disease-Free Survival
  • Humans
  • Lymphatic Metastasis
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Prostate-Specific Antigen / blood
  • Prostatectomy*
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / mortality*
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / pathology
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / therapy
  • Survival Rate

Substances

  • Androgen Antagonists
  • Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal
  • Prostate-Specific Antigen