Does androgen suppression enhance the efficacy of postoperative irradiation? A secondary analysis of RTOG 85-31. Radiation Therapy Oncology Group.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal in this randomized controlled trial publication.

To evaluate the effect of immediate androgen suppression in conjunction with standard external beam irradiation (RT) versus RT alone on a group of men after prostatectomy who had indications for adjuvant treatment.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 68 patients taking part.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, men only.

A national prospective randomized trial (Radiation Therapy Oncology Group [RTOG] 85-31) comparing standard external beam RT plus immediate androgen suppression versus external beam RT alone with delayed hormonal treatment at relapse was initiated for patients with locally advanced adenocarcinoma of the prostate.

One hundred thirty-nine of the patients in this trial had indications for adjuvant treatment after prostatectomy (eg, capsular penetration, seminal vesicle involvement).

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Seventy-one of the patients received RT with immediate androgen suppression (luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone [LHRH] agonist); 68 patients received RT alone with hormonal manipulation instituted only at the time of relapse.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Adenocarcinoma, Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal, Combined Modality Therapy, Disease-Free Survival, Goserelin, Prostate-Specific Antigen and Prostatic Neoplasms.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal in 68 patients.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 1999 (Urology), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.