Radical versus postoperative radiotherapy for localized prostate cancer: a 10-year experience of an academic hospital

This study is a presentation of our department’s experience in the treatment of localized prostate cancer with either radical or postoperative radiotherapy (RT). Fifty-five patients with clinical localized prostate cancer were reviewed. Thirty-three patients (T1-T2AN0M0 stage) were treated with radical RT and 22 (T2B-T3N0M0 stage) with postoperative RT. All patients received hormonal therapy. Primary end points of the study were the incidence of clinical and biochemical recurrences and death in the whole group and according to treatment modality. Within a median follow-up of 18 months the overall incidence of clinical relapse was 16.9%, of biochemical relapse 12.7% and of death 10.9%. Both treatment options achieved similar outcomes despite the fact that the patients in the postoperative RT group were of higher stage. Radical RT group tended to have better overall and disease-free survival compared to postoperative RT group, but there was no statistically significant evidence. Long-term toxicity was negligible.