Hormonal treatment at time of radical retropubic prostatectomy for stage D1 prostate cancer

We classified 70 prostatic cancers as stage D1 at the time of pelvic lymphadenectomy and radical prostatectomy. For retrospective analysis after 1 to 14 years of followup, the patients were divided into 32 in whom endocrine therapy had been given immediately postoperatively and 38 in whom it had not. These 2 groups did not differ substantially in patient age, Gleason grade, pathologic stage, tumor volume or seminal vesicle involvement. The mean number of involved nodes per patient was higher in the hormone-treated group (2.9 versus 1.8). According to Kaplan-Meier projections 88 per cent of such patients without hormonal treatment will have progression within 5 years, compared to only 14 per cent of those given hormonal treatment immediately. However, projected survival differed little between the groups, most likely since 17 of the 18 patients with progression in the nontreated group were given hormonal treatment as soon as progression was substantiated. Definitive assessment of the impact of the timing of endocrine therapy on patient survival and time to disease progression awaits a randomized trial with long-term followup.