Inability of Complete Androgen Blockade to Increase Survival of Patients with Advanced Prostatic Cancer as Compared to Standard Hormonal Therapy

Abstract

It has been proposed that early treatment of patients with advanced prostatic cancer by surgical or medical orchiectomy when combined with a direct acting antiandrogen will result in a more complete form of androgen blockade, thereby increasing response and survival rates compared to orchiectomy alone. We treated 55 patients with previously untreated advanced prostatic cancer by bilateral orchiectomy and additional administration of 50mg. of the direct acting antiandrogen cyproterone acetate orally per day. Therefore, these patients have undergone a combination therapy that meets the requirements of the proposed complete androgen blockade. All 22 patients with metastases at hospitalization died during the first 4 years of treatment. Among the 33 patients without clinical evidence of metastases at hospitalization 18 were alive after 5 years. Retrospectively, the direct observed 5-year survival rate for the patients treated with a complete androgen blockade did not show any advantage compared to reported data with orchiectomy alone.