THE USEFULNESS OF HORMONAL THERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF PROSTATIC CANCER
Clinical Analysis of 160 Cases Over 12 Years in the Single Institute
1994 Volume 85 Issue 8 Pages 1256-1262
Details
1994 Volume 85 Issue 8 Pages 1256-1262
At the Second Tokyo National Hospital, treatment of patients with prostatic cancer was carried out under the same protocol over 12 years. The mean age of the patients was 73.6 years, and 50% of them fell into the Stage D category. As the initial treatment, hormonal therapy consisting primarily of diethylstilbestrol diphosphate (DES-P) was given to 93.8% of the patients, and the effectiveness of the initial treatment was observed in 87.4% of them. The pre-treatment tumor marker value was high in 65.6% of the patients, and reverted to within nornal limits after treatment in 51.3% of them. Relapse was observed in 15.0% of the patients. Side effects of hormonal therapy were observed in 20.7% of the patients, and the side effects resulted in death in 1.3% of them. Throughout the duration of the study, 34.4% of the patients resulted in death; 18.8% of these deaths related to cancer and 13.1% of them to other causes. The 5-year survival rate of all patients was 68.1%, and the 10-year survival rate was 52.7%. DES-P which is the primary drug in the protocol employed at our institution was well tolerated in the patients with minimal side effects when given appropriately and was believed to be an extremely effective drug in the treatment of prostatic cancer in Japan.
