The importance of continued endocrine treatment during chemotherapy of hormone-refractory prostate cancer.

Abstract

It is unclear if continuing with androgen deprivation in hormone-refractory prostate cancer is of any benefit. We report here 3 cases where continuation of androgen deprivation was essential in maintaining the response to chemotherapy. In the 3 patients there was an initial response to chemotherapy before relapse, as assessed by prostate-specific antigen levels. However, restarting the previously ineffective hormone therapy resulted in continued response to chemotherapy. In some patients continued androgen deprivation is essential to the response to chemotherapy. Presumably, in hormone-relapsed disease a significant proportion of the tumour can still be responsive to androgen deprivation.