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A 3‐year follow‐up of patients with localized prostate cancer operated on with or without pre‐treatment with the GnRH‐agonist triptorelin
Author(s) -
Hellström M.,
Häggman M.,
Pedersen K.,
Busch C.,
Brändstedt S.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
british journal of urology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.773
H-Index - 148
eISSN - 1464-410X
pISSN - 0007-1331
DOI - 10.1046/j.1464-410x.1996.t01-1-00097.x
Subject(s) - triptorelin , medicine , prostate cancer , urology , cancer , malignancy , agonist , gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist , prostate , prostatectomy , stage (stratigraphy) , radiation therapy , prostate specific antigen , hormone therapy , androgen deprivation therapy , hormone , gynecology , surgery , breast cancer , gonadotropin releasing hormone , luteinizing hormone , receptor , buserelin , paleontology , biology
Objective To examine the effect of pre‐operative androgen deprivation on the progression rate of malignancy in patients operated on for localized prostate cancer. Patients and methods A total of 53 patients received no hormone therapy (group 1) and a further 38 patients (group 2) received the generic releasing‐hormone agonist triptorelin during the 3 months before surgery. The patients in group 1 had T1b‐T2 tumours, whereas 12 of those in group 2 had clinical stage T3 tumours. Despite this, the surgical specimens from the patients in group 2 showed a rate of cancer invasion of the surgical margins 20% lower than those from the patients in group 1. After prostatectomy, the patients were followed for 3 years by repeated analyses of prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) in serum. Results During the follow‐up, the PSA level exceeded the upper threshold (0.6 ng/mL) in 16 % of the patients in group 1 and in 43 % of those in group 2 ( P <0.05). This difference was mainly related to the pre‐treatment stage of the tumour. Some of the patients in group 1 received post‐operative radiotherapy but this was not reflected in their PSA levels. Of the patients in group 1 and 2, 4% and 14% respectively ( P >0.05), developed symptoms from skeletal metastases. Conclusion There was no evidence that pre‐operative hormone therapy slowed the progression of prostate cancer.