Elderly Prostate Cancer Patients Can Tolerate Radiation

A study has shown that prostate cancer patients 80 and older can tolerate external beam radiation therapy. The study was presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago (IL, USA).

Researchers tracked 33 elderly men, aged 80 and over, with advanced and aggressive forms of prostate cancer. All were treated with external beam radiation therapy at the same levels used to treat patients in their 50s and 60s. The patients experienced no unusual or prolonged interruptions in treatment due to illness from radiation. Their five-year survival rate was 61.6%. Of the 33, 13 were alive and disease-free 23-83 months after treatment, and six patients with cancer progression were alive 44-98 months after treatment. Of the 14 who died during the 10-year study, five had no evidence of prostate cancer, four had evidence of disease progression, and five had unknown status. Elderly cancer patients who are severely ill or incapacitated are not good candidates for radiation therapy, however.

"The 61% survival rate is better than the five-year survival rate for lung cancer patients, and lung cancer is aggressively treated with radiation,” said author Melvin Deutsch, M.D., professor of radiation oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (PA, USA ). "So why not give elderly patients the benefit of the doubt? There's a good chance they'll live another five years.”




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University of Pittsburgh Medical Center