A recent study has revealed that a combination of chemotherapy and hormonal therapy is more effective in controlling PSA levels in patients with locally advanced prostate cancer than hormonal therapy alone. Published in The Journal of Urology, the study involved 141 men with high-risk prostate cancer, demonstrating that the addition of chemotherapy to standard hormone therapy led to longer control of PSA levels, a key indicator of tumor activity in prostate cancer.
Patients in the study were randomly assigned to receive either chemotherapy with the agent docetaxel in conjunction with hormonal therapy or hormonal therapy alone. The research focused on biochemical progression-free survival and the effectiveness of the treatments in shrinking the prostate cancer before surgery. Results showed that the combination treatment group had significantly better biochemical progression-free survival outcomes compared to the group receiving hormonal therapy alone, with 29% of patients on the combined treatment remaining free of rising PSA levels at the three-year follow-up mark.
Although neoadjuvant hormonal therapy has demonstrated benefits in tumor control for locally advanced prostate cancer, its effects on patient survival have been limited. The researchers of this study highlight that the combination of docetaxel chemotherapy and hormonal therapy has shown inconsistent results across different studies, but their findings suggest promising improvements in important outcomes for this group of high-risk patients. However, the study's short follow-up period limits the evaluation of significant endpoints like overall survival and the risk of death due to prostate cancer, indicating the need for longer-term studies to provide further evidence of the benefits of this combined treatment approach.