The cancer journal
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Comparative Study
Failure pattern implications following external beam irradiation of prostate cancer: long-term follow-up and indications of cure.
The purpose of this study was to present patterns and risk of biochemical failure following external beam irradiation of prostate cancer and to make comparisons to a published modern radical prostatectomy series. Between January 1987 and December 1994, 328 men were treated definitively at Fox Chase Cancer Center for localized prostate cancer using conventional or three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy. The median biochemical follow-up was 6.4 years, with all patients having at least 5 years follow-up. ⋯ Group II reaches low levels of risk at 6 years, in contrast to 4 years for the patients with a more favorable prognosis. We concluded that patients treated with external beam radiation alone show little risk of failure after 4 to 6 years. This result suggests that the 5-year bNED control rate approximates the eventual cure rate of prostate cancer.