Results of the interim analysis of the PR07 trial presented at ASCO

23 Jun 2014

Giving radiotherapy in addition to hormone therapy improves survival for men with prostate cancer.

These are the findings of the PR07 trial which is a long running collaborative trial between the NCIC Clinical Trials Group and MRC CTU. The MRC CTU joined this Canadian-led Intergroup trial in 1999 and recruited more than two thirds of the total of 1200 patients entered into the study between then and 2005, as well as making substantial scientific inputs to the ongoing design of the trial.

The trial compared the use of the standard therapy of androgen deprivation therapy (also known as hormone therapy) alone with androgen deprivation plus radiotherapy in men with locally advanced prostate cancer. The results of the second planned interim analysis of this trial were presented by the Chief Investigator Dr Padraig Warde, Toronto, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference on Sunday 6th May.

The results showed a significant improvement in overall survival and disease-specific survival with the addition of radiotherapy. The results led to the recommendation that androgen deprivation plus radiotherapy should be the standard of care for men like these. This is likely to have significant impact on the many thousands of men across the UK who are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year.

A detailed manuscript will follow later this year and will also be presented in the Plenary Session of American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO).