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FRIDAY, Aug. 14, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
The coronavirus pandemic has caused many to put off medical procedures, but a delay in radiation<\/a> treatment for prostate cancer<\/a> doesn’t appear to affect survival, a new study shows.<\/p>\n Researchers found that men with intermediate- or high-risk localized prostate cancer<\/a> receiving radiation<\/a> and hormone therapy<\/a> who delay radiation while staying on hormone therapy<\/a> didn’t face worse outcomes.<\/p>\n “Using a large database of patients with prostate cancer<\/a>, we validated that the timing of starting radiation could be flexible,” said study co-author Dr. Vinayak Muralidhar, a resident in the department of radiation oncology<\/a> at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.<\/p>\n “Our data suggest that patients can wait for COVID-19<\/a> cases to go down before starting radiation. Or, if there’s a chance a surge is coming, they could consider undergoing radiation a little earlier than planned and complete it before the surge arrives,” Muralidhar said in a hospital news release.<\/p>\n Radiation therapy<\/a> is given to patients with localized prostate cancer<\/a> along with six to 36 months of hormone therapy.<\/p>\n For the study, the researchers collected data on more than 63,000 cases of localized prostate cancer<\/a> in the U.S. National Cancer<\/a> Database.<\/p>\n The cases were divided into four groups based on when radiation was begun relative to hormone therapy. For men with intermediate- and high-risk disease, the study found no difference in overall survival in the four groups.<\/p>\n “The findings are reassuring to patients and allow us to come up with a flexible radiation schedule for prostate cancer<\/a> that ensures their safety,” Muralidhar said. “The results have important implications for patients in areas experiencing a surge in COVID-19<\/a> cases who can opt to wait for a safer time to come in and initiate treatment. In the future, we can also look at other types of cancers<\/a> and treatments and see how delaying therapy has an impact on survival.”<\/p>\n The report was published online Aug. 13 in the journal JAMA Oncology<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n “Our hope is that our study helps patients and providers make decisions about the timing of treatment,” said first author Edward Christopher Dee, a fourth-year student at Harvard Medical School. “These decisions may allow patients to decrease their risk of exposure to COVID-19<\/a>. Our findings may also provide reassurance to patients and providers who choose to delay treatment.”<\/p>\n — Steven Reinberg<\/p>\n ![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
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