Study Analyzes Twenty Five Years of Data After Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer Patients

Newswise — ATLANTA – In its March 3013 issue The Journal of Urology, the official journal of The American Urological Association, includes a study conducted by four physicians from Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia (RCOG), a Vantage Oncology affiliate. This study, 25 Year Disease Free Survival Rate after Irradiation of Prostate Cancer Calculated with the Prostate Specific Antigen Definition of Recurrence Used for Radical Prostatectomy, is the first-ever to analyze 25 years of follow-up data after radiation therapy treatment for prostate cancer patients.

Frank Critz, M.D., founder and medical director at RCOG, the largest community-based prostate program in the United States, co-wrote this study along with three other RCOG physicians, James Benton, M.D., Philip Shrake, M.D., and Mark Merlin, M.D. The prostate program at RCOG is the only program of its kind to have gathered and maintained a clinical records database for all patients over a 30-year period in a consistent and comprehensive manner.

“This study, the longest after irradiation of prostate cancer, confirms using the surgical PSA definition (PSA <0.2 ng/ml) that results from this program are equal to that of radical prostatectomy, thus giving men a choice of treatment and after 15 year follow up if the PSA is <0.2, late recurrence will be rare.”

source:Newswise