Prostate Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Prostate Cancer, including details on symptoms, genetics, screening, treatment, information. | |||||||
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PSA failure and the risk of death in prostate cancer patients treated with radiotherapy.Kwan W, Pickles T, Duncan G, Liu M, Agranovich A, Berthelet E, Keyes M, Kim-Sing C, Morris WJ, Paltiel C Radiation Therapy Program, Fraser Valley Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. wkwan@bccancer.bc.ca PURPOSE: To determine the relationship between prostate-specific antigen (PSA) failure and cause-specific and overall survival in prostate cancer patients treated with radical radiotherapy. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Patients with and without PSA failure were compared with respect to overall survival and cause-specific survival in a cohort of 1786 patients. The relationship between PSA failure and survival was further investigated among six subgroups defined by three tumor risk groups (high, intermediate, and low risk based on T stage, Gleason score, and presenting PSA) and two age groups (<75 years and >/=75 years). RESULTS: The 5-year overall survival among patients who had PSA failure was 79.5% vs. 87.5% among patients who had not failed (p = 0.0003). The corresponding 5-year cause-specific survival was 84.4% vs. 99.0% (p <0.0001). When the six subgroups are considered separately, PSA failure was associated with a worse cause-specific survival in the groups with intermediate- and high-risk disease. PSA failure was only associated with a worse overall survival in one subgroup: patients younger than 75 with high-risk disease. Deaths from nonprostate causes made the survival curves of patients with and without PSA failure in the other subgroups almost identical. CONCLUSION: PSA failure in prostate cancer patients treated with radiotherapy was associated with a poorer overall survival, which is seen mainly in younger patients with high-risk disease. Published 2 November 2004 in Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys, 60(4): 1040-6.
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