Chemo-endocrine therapy with low-dose cisplatin, UFT, and dexamethasone for hormone-refractory prostate cancer patients

Since September 2005, twenty-two patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer (aged 55-81 years) were treated with LH-RH agonist and low-dose cisplatin, UFT, and dexamethasone after proving resistant to estramustine phosphate therapy. The regimen of this therapy consists of 5 mg/body of cisplatin intravenously once a week, 300 mg/day of UFT and 1 mg/day of dexamethasone orally, every day. All patients suffered from clinical progression such as local recurrence in 11 patients who had already received radiation therapy, lymph node metastasis in 7 patients, and bone metastasis in 15 patients. Initial PSA value ranged from 1.7 ng/mL to 215.1 ng/mL. The PSA response rate, which decreased more than 50% in PSA values was 72. 7% (16/22). The follow-up term ranged from 2 to 43 months, and nine patients died of cancer progression. The median time to progression was 11 months, and median overall survival was 19 months. There were no severe adverse effects, and stoppages of the therapy for 13 patients were all due to disease progression. Following this therapy, 9 patients received best supportive care and 4 patients received docetaxel chemotherapy. We considered this therapy to be effective for patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer because it maintained their good QOL.