TUESDAY, May 9 (HealthDay News) -- Men who are 55 years of age or younger with localized prostate cancer experience outcomes as good as older men when treated with external beam radiation, according to a study published online May 8 in Cancer.
Andre Konski, M.D., and colleagues from the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, examined outcomes for 84 men age 55 or younger with localized prostate cancer who had been treated with three-dimension conformal radiation without androgen deprivation. The outcomes were compared with matched controls between the ages of 60 and 69 years and controls at least 70 years old.
There were no significant differences in five-year overall survival, with survival rates of 94 percent, 95 percent and 87 percent, respectively, for men 55 years or younger, men between 60 and 69, and men at least 70 years old. The corresponding five-year rates of freedom from biochemical failure were 82 percent, 76 percent and 70 percent, and the corresponding rates of freedom from distant metastases were 96 percent, 97 percent and 98 percent, which were not statistically different.
"Men age 55 years [or younger] who present with localized prostate cancer do not appear to have a worse prognosis," the authors conclude. "External beam radiation therapy appears to be a viable treatment alternative and should be offered to men [of this age] who present with organ-confined prostate cancer."
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