Radical surgery versus radiation therapy in early prostatic carcinoma

Patients with organ-confined prostatic cancer, as determined by digital examination, bone scans and serum acid phosphatase determination, were randomized to radical prostatectomy or external-beam radiation therapy. With respect to first evidence of treatment failure, there was a significant difference in favor of the patients who had surgical treatment. In the patients given radiotherapy there was no essential difference in time to failure as compared with comparable patients in two recent observation-only trials on record.