Updated results of the phase III Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) trial 85-31 evaluating the potential benefit of androgen suppression following standard radiation therapy for unfavorable prognosis carcinoma of the prostate.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Goserelin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

To determine the potential advantage of androgen ablation following standard external-beam radiation therapy in patients with locally advanced (clinical or pathologic T3; clinical or pathologic node positive) carcinoma of the prostate.

Who Took Part

The study group was 977 patients.

PubMed tags the participants as men only.

In 1987 the RTOG initiated a Phase III trial of long-term adjuvant goserelin in definitively irradiated patients with carcinoma of the prostate.

A total of 977 patients were accrued to the study of which 945 remain analyzable: 477 on the adjuvant hormone arm (Arm I); and 468 on the radiation only arm (Arm II) with hormones initiated at relapse.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Goserelin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

The initial results were reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in 1997.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Androgen Antagonists, Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal, Chemotherapy, Adjuvant, Disease-Free Survival, Goserelin, Neoplasm Staging and Prognosis.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Goserelin in 977 patients.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2001 (International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics), a journal based in United States.

More context: the related Goserelin library page, all human trials.