Survival after radiotherapy vs. prostate surgery for intermediate-risk prostate cancer.

This study aimed to investigate the outcomes of intermediate risk-risk prostate cancer after different treatments. This study concluded that prostate surgery might have a higher survival than radiotherapy.

There a several options to treat intermediate-risk prostate cancer (IR-PC). Radical prostatectomy (RP; surgery to remove the prostate) is one option. Radiation therapy can also be used. This can be done as external beam radiation therapy (EBRT; X-ray beams come from outside the body and meet on the tumor), brachytherapy (BT; places a radioactive source into the tumor) or both EBRT and BT (EBRT+BT). Another option is androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). This is an antihormone therapy used to lower the hormones that fuel cancer growth. 

It is unclear which treatment is optimal in terms of survival.

This study included 10,439 patients with IR-PC. Patients had either RP, EBRT, BT or EBRT+BT. They were followed up for an average of 4.1 years.

There was no significant difference in overall survival between RP and EBRT+BT. However, RP was associated with a 2.37 times higher survival when compared to EBRT alone. It was also associated with a 1.98 times higher survival when compared to BT alone. When ADT was used, there was no significant difference in survival time between groups. 

This study concluded that RP was associated with a higher survival than EBRT or BT alone.

This study was based on medical records. Information collected in this way is not always complete. Further direct studies comparing these treatment methods are necessary.