External irradiation therapy in carcinoma of the prostate

107 patients with poorly differentiated prostatic carcinoma without metastases received local irradiation at the Karolinska Hospital from 1965 through 1973. The majority of the patients had received previous hormone therapy and had a progressive local disease. Many of them were given estrogens even after radiotherapy. All the patients were followed for at least 5 years. Complete regression of the palpable prostatic carcinoma mass was registered in about 70% of the cases. A 33% 5-year survival was obtained. This is significantly higher than the survival of the comparable group of patients receiving only hormones.