Can someone comment on this article. I don't really understand what it
means, esp this statement "The researchers also found that the disease
remained localized in the prostate for 93 percent of the patients in
the early radiation therapy group, compared to 63 percent in the other
group. The risk of death from localized prostate cancer was also
significantly lower for men receiving post-surgical early radiation
therapy"

I thought if the disease was localized than it can be pretty much
easily cured.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=33602

FRIDAY, June 25 (HealthdayNews) -- Prostate cancer patients who
receive radiation therapy within six months of surgery typically live
longer than patients who don't receive early radiation treatment, a
new Italian study finds.

"Our results show that radiation therapy after prostate surgery helps
limit the chances that the cancer will recur, allowing patients to
live longer," said Dr. Cesare Cozzarini, a radiation oncologist at San
Raffaele H. Scientific Institute in Milan, and the study's principal
investigator.

"To my knowledge, this is the largest study of its kind completed at a
single institution," he added.

The researchers examined the records of 415 men with prostate cancer
who underwent surgery to remove their prostate and surrounding lymph
nodes between 1986 and 1999 at the Institute.

Two groups of post-surgical patients were studied -- one group
included men who received external beam radiation therapy within six
months of their prostate operation; the other included men whose
physicians followed them over time and provided radiation therapy only
if their cancers showed signs of returning. None of the men whose
records were studied had metastatic disease -- that is, cancer in
areas of the body other than the prostate.

After eight years of follow-up, the survival rate for men receiving
early radiation therapy was 69 percent, compared to 31 percent for
those who had radiation therapy more than six months after their
surgeries or not at all.

The researchers also found that the disease remained localized in the
prostate for 93 percent of the patients in the early radiation therapy
group, compared to 63 percent in the other group. The risk of death
from localized prostate cancer was also significantly lower for men
receiving post-surgical early radiation therapy.

Results of the study will appear in the July issue of the
International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, a
publication of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and
Oncology.

Dr. Eric Horwitz is associate professor and Director of the Radiation
Oncology Training Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.
He said the Italian study is the first to offer evidence about whether
radiation treatment soon after prostate surgery actually improves a
man's chances of survival.

"These results provide oncologists, urologists and radiologists with
another important piece of the prostate cancer treatment puzzle,"
Horwitz said. "The study included a significant number of patients and
included many follow-up details about these men five and eight years
later. Most importantly, it also provides valuable information about
whether they survived, not just about their levels of prostate
specific antigen (PSA), which is what most previous studies have
reported."

Dr. E. Roy Berger, M.D., founding member of the Prostate Cancer
Education Council, noted that the Milan research and similar recent
studies are moving the treatment of prostate cancer along the same
path recently traveled by breast cancer patients and physicians.

"Five years ago, radical mastectomy was the only way to go in breast
cancer treatment," he said. "Today there's been so much good research
about the positive outcomes of other treatment approaches that
chemotherapy, radiation and less radical surgical interventions are
widely used together -- and the breast cancer survival rates are
improving."

Berger believes that "this is the same course the treatment of
prostate cancer is likely to follow, as understanding grows of the
roles radiation, hormones and chemotherapy used together can play in
saving men's lives."

Dr. Ronald Smialowicz, a urologist in private practice at St. Francis
Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, concurred.

"The standard of care in prostate cancer is continuing to evolve," he
said. "As is now the case in the treatment of breast cancer, the best
outcomes will likely occur when prostate cancer treatment is highly
individualized and men themselves participate in making an informed
decision about what treatments they pursue at each point in their
disease and recovery process."

Prostate cancer is the second most common malignancy affecting
American men. The American Cancer Society estimates some 230,900 new
cases will be diagnosed this year, with about 29,900 deaths. Only skin
cancer is more prevalent. One American man in six will develop
prostate cancer during his lifetime and one in 32 will die from the
disease.

SOURCES: Cesare Cozzarini, M.D., Department of Radiochemotherapy, San
Raffaele H. Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy; Eric Horwitz, M.D.,
associate professor and Director of the Radiation Oncology Training
Program, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia: E. Roy Berger, M.D.,
F.C.A.P., North Shore Hematology/Oncology Associates, P.C., East
Setauket, N.Y.; Ronald Smialowicz, M.D., Urology, St. Francis Memorial
Hospital, San Francisco; American Cancer Society Web site; July 2004,
International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics