• Hidetsugu Nakayama, Ayae Kanemoto, Koji Kikuchi, Katsuyuki Matsuki, Mitsuro Tomobe, Sadamu Tsukamoto, Hitoshi Takeshima, Yoshiko Oshiro, Shinji Sugahara, and Koichi Tokuuye.
• Department of Radiation Oncology, Tsukuba Medical Center, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. hnakayam@tokyo-med.ac.jp
• Anticancer Res. 2013 Apr 1; 33 (4): 1629-33.

AimTo retrospectively investigate the biochemical outcome following delayed radiotherapy in patients with prostate cancer.Patients And MethodsFrom July 2000 to November 2008, 144 consecutive patients with localized prostate cancer underwent radiotherapy and androgen-deprivation therapy. Biochemical progression-free survival was compared in patients who began radiotherapy >6 months (delayed group) with these who began ≤ 6 months (non-delayed group) from diagnosis by biopsy. Treatment selection bias was adjusted by the propensity score method.ResultsAfter a median follow-up of 64 months, the 5-year biochemical progression-free survival of the delayed and non-delayed groups was 87.4% (95% confidence interval, CI=69.7-95.1%) and 96.6% (95% CI=89.6-98.9%), respectively (p=0.03). Delayed radiotherapy was the only independent risk factor for biochemical progression (hazard ratio=3.97, 95% CI 1.07-14.7, p=0.04). The results were validated by propensity score analysis.ConclusionDelaying radiotherapy by >6 months increases the risk of biochemical progression in patients with localized prostate cancer.

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