Background: The role of radiotherapy for patients with localized hormone-refractory cancer has not been well documented.
Materials and methods: The Patterns of Care Study in Japan examined the records of 311 patients with prostate cancer treated with radiotherapy during the period 1996--1998. Of them, 61 patients (19.6%) with regionally localized hormone-refractory cancer were selected. Local progression or biochemical failure was observed after a median duration of 15.9 months of androgen deprivation. At the time of radiotherapy, 49 patients (80.4%) had T3-4 tumors and 15 (26.8%) had regional lymph node metastases. External beam radiotherapy was performed with a median total dose of 60 Gy.
Results: Although distant metastases or regional lymph node metastases were seen in 22 patients (36.1), local progression was observed in one patient (1.6%). The five-year overall and progression-free survival rates were 51.6% and 43.5%, respectively.
Conclusion: Radiotherapy had an excellent local control rate for hormone-refractory cancer.