[Cancer of the prostate: current status of chemotherapy]

Life expectancy of patients with prostatic cancer is varying from one case to another and, sometimes, these patients have a very long life expectancy. Less than a third of this patients are dying from their cancer. This notion implies to be very careful in the choice of aggressive treatments. Isolated or combined chemotherapy assays permitted to select cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, cis-platinum or estramustine phosphate as active drugs in the treatment of prostatic cancer. But the randomized studies, in Europe or in U.S.A., are not demonstrative enough to propose these drugs for a routine treatment. Cancer of the prostate is usually represented by cellular groups that are more or less sensitive to the different kind of available treatments. Perhaps in the future the best results of treatment will be the association of chemotherapy-radiotherapy and hormonotherapy.