Failure to control early prostate cancer results in a poor outcome

The research, led by Daniel Krauss, M.D., a radiation oncologist, Beaumont Hospital -- Royal Oak, found an association between positive post-radiation therapy biopsy results and subsequent clinical outcomes in men with localized prostate cancer.

"While performing a post-radiation biopsy is not currently a standard practice, the fact that it was done as part of this clinical trial afforded the opportunity to more precisely quantify the importance of successful local therapy for this disease," explains Dr. Krauss.

According to the American Cancer Society, nearly 220,000 American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year. After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed nationally among men. The prostate is part of a man's reproductive system.

Nearly 2,000 patients were enrolled in the seven-year study that took place between October 1994 and April 2001. The study was supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute and the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

"This study allowed us to look more closely at the long-term outcomes of patients in whom the localized cancer in the prostate was successfully eradicated and compare them to patients whose disease persisted within the prostate following treatment," adds Dr. Krauss. "Failure to control localized cancer, confined to the prostate, predicts a poor clinical outcome -- PSA recurrence, the spread of cancer beyond the prostate and the likelihood of dying from prostate cancer."