[Chemotherapy of prostatic carcinoma]

The overall results of chemotherapy of hormone-refractory prostate carcinomas are disappointing. In practical terms, only partial remissions are observed. Complete remissions are very rare. Prospective randomized studies revealed no advantage of primary chemotherapy over standard hormone therapy with regard to survival time of patients with metastasized prostate carcinoma. Furthermore, superiority of a combination therapy over therapy with a single cytostatic agent for prostate carcinoma has so far not been proved. These results indicate that chemotherapy of prostate carcinoma should only be applied within controlled studies, and that new substances or combination preparations should preferably be tested in such studies.