Long-term results of treating advanced prostatic cancer with the LH-RH analogue Zoladex

Fifty-six patients with previously untreated advanced prostatic cancer were treated with the LH-RH agonist Zoladex. Patients have been followed for between 24 and 39 months. The response rate and duration of response have been assessed and related to the degree of differentiation of the primary tumor. All of the patients with well-differentiated tumors responded symptomatically, while the comparable figure for patients with poorly differentiated tumors was 67%. The better differentiated tumors tended to respond longer than their poorly differentiated counterparts (18.75 months compared to 15.9 months, respectively). Overall survival was worse in patients having tumors of higher grade and the mean survival after relapse was shorter. The results confirm the unfavorable prognostic significance of poor histological grade in prostatic cancer and indicate that response to treatment, duration of response, and time to death following relapse are also adversely influenced.