This means thousands of men could avoid devastating chemotherapy
SHAUN WOOLLER HEALTH EDITOR FOR THE DAILY MAIL
Thousands of men a year with advanced prostate cancer could avoid gruelling chemotherapy by combining radiotherapy and hormone therapy, a study reveals.
Targeting the radiotherapy to the sites where the cancer has spread can delay further progression of the disease and the need for subsequent treatments, such as chemotherapy, which can have significant impact on a person’s quality of life, researchers say.
The trial demonstrated that the patients’ cancer did not progress for an average of six months (6.4) and two fifths (40.1 per cent) of patients remained progression-free at 12 months.
Oligoprogressive cancer occurs when cells from the original tumour travel within the body to fewer than three sites, forming new tumours or lesions.
Currently, disease progression after hormone therapy treatment is taken as a sign that the cancer has become resistant to the treatment.
However, findings from the trial revealed that it may just be some tumours that are resistant, and if the tumours are treated with radiotherapy the rest of the cancer will still respond to hormone therapy.
In the national study, which took place in cancer centres across the UK, researchers investigated whether giving SBRT along with a type of hormone therapy, called androgen receptor targeted agents, to patients with oligoprogressive prostate cancer would delay the time it takes for their cancer to progress.
The patients in the study had advanced prostate cancer that was no longer responding to regular treatment.