Hormone Therapy for Prostate Cancer Patients?

A new tool has been developed to help physicians determine which high-risk prostate cancer patients will benefit from hormone therapy.

Researchers from the Fox Chase Cancer Center developed a prediction tool that “uses a patient’s clinical information to estimate the benefit of adding androgen deprivation therapy of various durations to radiation therapy.”

Using androgen deprivation for prostate cancer patients has been debatable. Though it helps the effect of the radiation to kill the prostate cancer cells and increase survival rates in men with a high risk for recurring cancer, its severe side effects are often not worth the benefits that the therapy provides.

“Fortunately, we’ve been able to generate a nuanced prediction tool that incorporates disease burden and individualizes treatment recommendations. We can enter each patient’s clinical information and estimate the probability of the cancer coming back using different durations of hormone therapy to determine the best course,” said Niraj H. Pahlajani, resident at the Fox Chase Cancer Center’s radiation oncology department.

Although other prediction tools are already in use, this one is personalized and can estimate the benefits of different lengths of hormone therapy as well. The tool bases conclusions on two main factors determined by a biopsy, “the percent of cancer-positive tissue identified and the percent of that positive tissue with a Gleason grade of four or five.”

Data supporting the tool was recently presented by Pahlajani at the 50th annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, held in Boston, MA.

Further information can be found here.