my comments - open ended articles like this are dangerous in that the
article did not list what standards they were using as a study group.
there is no consideration for gleason score, psa, or staging in the
article.

~ curtis

=====================

Publish Date : 4/17/2006 1:19:00 AM  

When cancer is confined to the prostate, removal of the organ can
successfully control the disease. However, for patients with cancer
extending beyond the prostate the risk of recurrence after surgery can
be 10-50%.

Michel Bolla (CHUA Michallon, Grenoble, France) and colleagues tested
whether immediate radiotherapy after surgical removal of the prostate
(prostatectomy) improved progression-free survival for patients at risk
of relapse. Between 1992 to 2001, the investigators recruited 1000
patients who had undergone radical prostatectomy from 37 centres in
Europe.

Half were assigned to radiotherapy after surgery and half to monitoring.
After a 5-year follow-up the researchers found that 74% of patients in
the radiotherapy group had biochemical progression-free survival
compared with 53% in the monitored group. Biochemical progression-free
survival refers to the patient's concentration of prostate-specific
antigen--a marker for prostate cancer.
They investigators also found that clinical progression-free survival
was significantly improved in the radiotherapy group.

Professor Bolla concludes: "Our results show significant improvement in
biochemical progression-free survival with immediate postoperative
irradiation…Long-term follow-up is needed to assess if postoperative
irradiation affects the occurrence of distant metastases, survival, or
both."

In an accompanying comment Stefan Hocht (Charité University Hospital,
Berlin, Germany) states: "Michel Bolla and colleagues report on a large
study from the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of
Cancer (EORTC) that is likely to change patterns of care in locally
advanced prostate cancer…Although the superiority of adjuvant
radiotherapy is to be expected, we did not have direct proof of this
hypothesis. The question still to be answered is whether adjuvant
irradiation is superior to early salvage treatment as soon as
prostate-specific antigen rises."

Professor Michel Bolla, CHUA Michallon, Radiation department, BP

217X, F-38043, Grenoble Cedex, France.
T) 33-476-765-435
michel.bolla@ujf-grenoble.fr
Dr Stefan Hocht, Dept. Radiation Oncology and Radiotherapy,
Charité University Hospital, Campus Benjamin Franklin, D-12200 Berlin,
Germany
T) 49-308-445-3058
stefan.hoecht@charite.de
Contact: Joe Santangelo
j.santangelo@elsevier.com
1-212-633-3810
Lancet
http://www.thelancet.com  

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional    
"Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is
invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so."
http://community.webtv.net/PALMER_ENT/doc