Radiation as effective as surgery in prostate cancer patients, study suggests

New research suggests that high-dose radiation therapy may be as effective as surgery for patients suffering with prostate cancer, a discovery that could lead to the simplification of the treatment process for patients.

The study, published July 22 in the journal of European Urology, also provides evidence to suggest that external radiation followed by brachytherapy produces the best chance for preventing metastatic disease.

Researchers completed the study at UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and examined more than 450 prostate cancer patients that were treated for Gleason scores of 9 or 10 prostate cancer between 2000 and 2013.

The researchers measured outcomes based on the Kaplan-Meier analysis and multivariate Cox regression, which estimated and compared five-year and 10-year patient survival rates. They found that radiotherapy-based treatments and radical prostatectomy gave patients with aggressive prostate cancer the same survival rate.

“Our study focuses on a particularly aggressive form of prostate cancer, and provides the largest series of outcomes for patients with this diagnosis who were treated in the modern era,” said Amar Kishan, the lead author on the study and the chief resident in the department of radiation oncology at UCLA, in a statement. “Our conclusions are relevant to both physicians advising patients about the effectiveness of different treatment options, and patients who would like to learn more about these options on their own.”