Radiation Therapy and Androgen Deprivation Therapy in Treating Patients Who Have Undergone Surgery for Prostate Cancer (RADICALS)

OBJECTIVES:

• Assess the timing of radiotherapy and the use of hormone therapy in conjunction with post-operative radiotherapy.
• Determine the impact of radiotherapy on general quality of life, sexual function, urinary function, and bowel function.
• Determine the impact of duration of hormone therapy on general quality of life and sexual function.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Patients requiring immediate radiotherapy (RT) are assigned to arm I; patients do not require immediate RT are assigned to arm II. Patients for whom the need of immediate post-operative radiotherapy are uncertain undergo radiotherapy timing randomization within 3 months after surgery and are randomized to 1 of 2 radiotherapy arms.

• Arm I (immediate RT): Within 2 months after randomization, patients undergo radiotherapy to the prostate bed once a day, 5 days a week, for 4 (20 fractions total) or 6.5 weeks (33 fractions total). They may also undergo radiotherapy to the pelvic lymph nodes once a day, 5 days a week, for 4.5 weeks (23 fractions total) at the investigator's discretion.
• Arm II (early salvage RT in case of PSA failure): Within 2 months of confirmation of post-operative biochemical failure, patients undergo radiotherapy as in arm I.

Patients undergoing immediate RT and patients who eventually need early salvage RT undergo hormone therapy duration randomization before the administration of post-operative radiotherapy. Patients are randomized to 1 of 3 hormone therapy arms.