Effect of adjuvant hormone therapy in patients with prostate cancer: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

To summarize the evidence regarding the treatment effect of adjuvant hormone therapy (AHT) in patients with prostate cancer (PCa). AHT following radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or surgery is widely used in patients with PCa. However, the treatment effect is inconsistent in individual trials.

The electronic databases including PubMed, EmBase, and Cochrane Library were searched to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in September 2016. RCTs that evaluated the effects of AHT in patients with PCa were included. Hazard ratio (HR) and relative risks (RR) were used to measure the treatment effects of AHT using a random effects model. The analyses were further stratified by factors that could affect the treatment efficacy.

A total of 14,594 potential studies were identified, and 27 RCTs were included. Compared with the control group, patients who received AHT were associated with a significant improvement in overall survival (OS) (HR: 0.78; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.71-0.85; P <.001), disease-free survival (DFS) (HR: 0.50; 95% CI: 0.39-0.65; P <.001), total mortality (RR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.85-0.96; P = .001), recurrence (RR: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.60-0.81; P <.001), and disease-specific mortality (RR: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.56-0.87; P <.001). However, no significant difference was observed between AHT and control for response rate (RR: 1.75; 95% CI: 0.91-3.37; P = .095).

The findings of this meta-analysis confirmed that patients who received AHT had a significant improvement in OS, DFS, total mortality, recurrence, and disease-specific mortality. Further, large-scale RCTs are required to evaluate the treatment effect in specific subpopulations.