Purpose: The results of radiotherapy alone in the prostate cancer stage T3-T4 are not satisfactory. We investigated, whether the combination of radio-chemotherapy with hormone therapy, possible most effective therapy in stage III, will be tolerated without serious side effects.
Patients and methods: Eight patients with prostate cancer T3/T4 were treated with concurrent radio-chemotherapy and hormone therapy. The mean doses in reference point was 61.7 Gy, the single dose was 1.8 Gy. The patients received epirubicin 20 mg/m2 and 5-fluorouracil 800 mg/m2 on day 1 to 5 and 29 to 33 of radiotherapy. The hormone therapy began before the radio-chemotherapy started.
Results: Only the hematological side effects were relevant. Three out of 8 patients had leucopenia grade III and 1 of 8 patients leucopenia grade IV according WHO. Other serious complications could not be observed.
Conclusion: The concurrent radio-chemotherapy with epirubicin and 5-fluorouracil in the combination with hormone therapy was tolerated well. The effectiveness of this new treatment should be examined prospectively in prostate cancer stage T3-T4.