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Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Getting the latest healthcare news for you
A phase 3 trial found that bumping radiotherapy from 70 Gy to 80 Gy — combined with long-term hormone therapy — meaningfully improved survival in men with high-risk prostate cancer. At 5 years, progression-free survival jumped from 88.1% to 91.4%, and the gap widened further at 10 years. Crucially, the higher dose didn't increase toxicity or worsen quality of life.
A modest bump in radiation dose could make a meaningful difference for men battling high-risk prostate cancer. The GETUG-AFU 18 phase 3 trial — enrolling 505 patients across 25 centers in France — found that delivering external beam radiotherapy at 80 Gy (vs. the conventional 70 Gy), alongside up to 36 months of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS). The benefit held up over a median follow-up of 9.5 years, with no added toxicity.
An accompanying editorial in Lancet Oncology praised the PFS findings as "convincing," but urged caution on the overall survival results. The number of non-prostate-cancer deaths was unexpectedly higher in the 70 Gy group, raising the possibility of residual confounding — a reminder that even randomized trials can produce uncertain secondary outcomes when event numbers are low.
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Why it matters: These results support dose escalation as a viable strategy in high-risk prostate cancer without sacrificing safety. Experts also see potential for higher-dose radiation to eventually reduce reliance on prolonged ADT — a shift that could significantly improve patients' quality of life.
