Early combined hormonal and chemotherapy for metastatic prostatic carcinoma

Twenty-four patients with confirmed Stage D carcinoma of the prostate were treated with a combination of bilateral orchiectomy, estrogens (diethylstilbestrol) and chemotherapy (5-fluorouracil), and cyclophosphamide soon after diagnosis was established. Patients were followed up between forty-two to seventy-two months. Seventy-five per cent of patients reported relief of bone pain after initiation of therapy, and 83.3 per cent reported relief of their urinary symptoms. The primary tumor shrank in all patients, and initial stabilization or partial disappearance of osteoblastic lesions on bone scans was noted in 79.1 per cent of patients. The cumulative survival rates at five and six years were 63.48 and 50.78 per cent, respectively. The combined therapy was well tolerated by the patients, and complications were not severe and of a transient nature.