Intermittent Androgen Suppression for Rising PSA Level after Radiotherapy

Androgen-deprivation therapy for prostate cancer has side effects. In this study, intermittent androgen-deprivation therapy was associated with a survival rate similar to that with continuous treatment, with about one third the total antiandrogen exposure and fewer side effects. Ever since Huggins and Hodges's work of 1941 1 showing the androgen dependence of prostate cancer, androgen deprivation has been the mainstay treatment for metastatic disease. With the development of reversible forms of medical castration, indications for androgen deprivation have been expanded to include nonmetastatic disease. 2 – 4 The introduction of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing into clinical practice in the early 1990s provided an objective evaluation of the efficacy of definitive treatment; biochemical failure became an accepted end point. The ability to diagnose early treatment failure created a clinical dilemma. The justification for lifelong androgen deprivation is more apparent in the case . . .