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# Prostate cancer treatment doesn't help older patients
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/prostate_cancer_treatment_0807130151/
- Published: 2013-08-07T23:50:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:13:01.000Z
- Description: Among 660 men with high-risk prostate cancer treated with high-dose radiation and androgen deprivation, only 14.1 percent of deaths were from prostate cancer. Survival tracked age and comorbidity score rather than radiation dose, Gleason score, PSA or androgen deprivation duration.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Drug, Health News, #vivvo-import

Wed. Aug 7, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study in Radiation Oncology again suggests that men older than 70 years are better off avoiding prostate cancer screening. The study found older men with high risk prostate cancer were more likely to die of causes other than prostate cancer.

Early research has already shown that men older than 70 years should not receive prostate cancer screening because any treatment can do more harm than good and patients are more likely to die from causes other than prostate cancer.

The current study analyzed data from 660 patients with high risk prostate cancer were treated with high dose external beam radiation therapy and androgen deprivation therapy between 1996 and 2009 in a clinic.

The median dose was 78 Gy which is huge and the median duration of androgen deprivation was six months and median follow-up period was 74 months.

The 10-year overall survival was 60.6%, which is pretty good, but that does not mean the high 10-year survival was due to the treatment.

The study found only 14.1% of deaths were caused by prostate cancer, compared with 8.4 % by other cancers, 7.3% by cardiovascular disease and 10.4% by all other causes,

The survival period was largely determined by older age and Charlson comorbidity index score and it had nothing to do with "Gleason score, T stage, prostate-specific antigen, duration of AD, radiation dose, smoking history, and body mass index." It should be noted that radiation dose and androgen deprivation duration or simply put prostate cancer treatment did not help survival. 

Men youger than 70 years of age with Charlson score euqal to zero were more likely to die from prostate cancer where older men or those with Charlson score greater than or equal to 1 were more likely to die from other causes.

The researchers concluded "Men with high-risk prostate cancer are more likely to die of causes other than prostate cancer, except for the subgroup of men younger than 70 years of age without comorbidities. Only older age and presence of comorbidities significantly predicted for OS (overall survival), whereas prostate cancer- and treatment-related factors did not." (by Jimmy Downs)