Individual patient data meta-analysis of hormone therapy use and duration with postoperative radiotherapy for recurrent prostate cancer

Adding hormone therapy to definitive radiotherapy in localized prostate cancer improves overall survival. The value of adding hormone therapy to postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) after radical prostatectomy is not clear. An individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis of six randomized trials (6057 patients; median follow-up 9.0 year; IQR 7.2-10.7) investigated the overall survival impact of adding short-term (4-6 months) or long-term (24 months) of hormone therapy to PORT. Adding hormone therapy to PORT did not significantly improve overall survival (HR 0.87; p=0.06). There was no significant interaction between hormone therapy duration and this effect (p for interaction=0.17). although there was a significant interaction with pre-PORT PSA greater than 0.5 ng/mL versus 0.5 ng/mL or less (0.02). The authors conclude that there might be no meaningul overall survival benefit from adding hormone therapy to PORT for PSA 0.5 ng/mL or less.