New approach to decades old treatment yields increased Survival

For more than 60 years, the standard of care for patients with prostate cancer fueled by androgen hormones that has spread to other parts of the body has been androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). While the response rate is high, resistance to ADT often occurs. Generally, when ADT is no longer working, chemotherapy is administered for these patients. Research coordinated by the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group, supported in part by the National Cancer Institute, and published in the current online version of The New England Journal of Medicine, examined the outcomes of giving the chemotherapy drug Docetaxel at the start of ADT. Results showed an increased survival of 13.6 months for patients treated with ADT plus docetaxel than with ADT alone.