Objective: To determine whether hormonal therapy prior to radical prostatectomy (neoadjuvant hormonal therapy) leads to improved results in patients with stage C prostate cancer.
Patients and methods: Thirty patients received neoadjuvant hormonal therapy for stage C carcinoma of the prostate. Eighteen patients who responded to treatment subsequently underwent extirpative surgery.
Results: Fourteen of the 30 patients (47%) were diagnosed as being downstaged to clinical stage B disease following therapy. No major complications occurred. Pathology staging revealed only three patients (10%) to have organ-confined disease after radical prostatectomy.
Conclusions: Neoadjuvant hormonal therapy prior to radical prostatectomy offers little probability of rendering patients with clinical stage C carcinoma of the prostate free of disease. Further investigation of the efficacy of this treatment should be accomplished in randomized trials.