A meta-analysis has confirmed the benefit of adding androgen deprivation therapy to radiotherapy for localized prostate cancer, and a cohort study has provided guidance on the optimal duration of the therapy.

The current validation study included 741 participants of a multi-institutional cohort who had biopsy-confirmed US National Comprehensive Cancer Center (NCCN) intermediate-, high-, or very high-risk localized prostate cancer and were treated with external beam radiation therapy equivalent to a minimum of 75.6 Gy at 1.8 Gy per fraction (84% received ≥79.2 Gy) with or without ADT.

A phase 3 trial has failed to demonstrate the noninferiority of delayed targeted intraoperative radiotherapy to whole-breast external beam radiotherapy in terms of local control at 5 years in patients with early-stage breast cancer, but other long-term outcomes were comparable.

Adding androgen deprivation therapy to external beam radiotherapy may result in better survival than adding a brachytherapy boost in men with intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer, network meta-analysis data suggest.

The 5-year results of the TARGIT-A trial have demonstrated the noninferiority of risk-adapted, single-dose targeted intraoperative radiotherapy delivered during lumpectomy to conventional radiotherapy for the adjuvant treatment of early-stage breast cancer.

Starting radiotherapy up to 6 months after androgen deprivation therapy may be feasible for men with intermediate- and high-risk localized prostate cancer, say US researchers who found that overall survival was comparable regardless of the timing of radiotherapy initiation.

In patients with stage IV non-small-cell lung cancer, the addition of surgical resection or external beam radiotherapy/thermal ablation to systemic therapy increases overall survival versus systemic therapy alone, suggests a comparative effectiveness study.

Among the potential active treatment options for prostate cancer, external‐beam radiotherapy alone results in the best preservation of sexual function up to 2 years after treatment, population-based study data show.

Treatment with radical prostatectomy plus adjuvant external beam radiotherapy and androgen deprivation therapy can offer equivalent survival outcomes to a nonsurgical approach in patients with high-risk prostate cancer, research shows.

Researchers have been unable to show that single-dose radiotherapy is not inferior to multifraction radiotherapy in terms of ambulatory status in patients with metastatic prostate, lung, or breast cancer and spinal cord or cauda equina compression.

External beam radiotherapy plus brachytherapy and radical prostatectomy are both suitable options for men with high-risk prostate cancer, while EBRT–BT appears to be the optimal regimen for Gleason score 9–10 disease, indicate the results of two studies. Click here for a commentary by advisory board member Axel Merseburger.

In the current, 5-year analysis, men with favorable-risk disease who underwent nerve-sparing prostatectomy (n=675) had clinically meaningful worse urinary incontinence than men who underwent active surveillance (n=363; mean difference 10.9 points), external beam radiation therapy (EBRT, n=261; 15.9 points), and low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy (n= 87; 11.6 points) after adjustment for baseline function, and patient and tumor characteristics.

Patients treated with 18 months of androgen suppression plus radiotherapy have a significantly lower rate of prostate cancer-specific death at 10 years than those who receive 6 months of androgen suppression and radiotherapy, researchers report.

Two sets of findings could help men choosing between radical prostatectomy, external beam radiotherapy, brachytherapy, and active surveillance for localized prostate cancer.

Comment on:  EBRT plus brachytherapy stands out for high-risk prostate cancer Few studies have compared outcomes after external beam radiotherapy (EBRT), EBRT plus brachytherapy (BT), and radical prostatectomy (RP).

“This finding reflects the acute side-effects of external beam irradiation of the whole breast,” Schäfer et al remark.

Cisplatin chemoradiotherapy significantly delays disease recurrence and improves survival compared with radiotherapy alone in women with stage IIIB squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix, phase III study data show.

Although radical cystectomy is considered the standard of care for these patients, bladder-preservation approaches – such as TMT, which comprises transurethral resection of bladder tumour, chemotherapy for radiation sensitization, and external beam radiotherapy – have emerged in recent years, the Canadian research team explains in the Journal of Clinical Oncology .

Thereafter, bowel function, with the exception of bloody stools, improved among radiotherapy-treated men.