| Also see the other sections on results: external beam , 3D conformal, seed implants and radiation/hormones. also see the section:
"How serious is it if the PSA
starts to rise after receiving radiation?" Recently published data from 6 Universities on 1,765 men treated with external beam irradiation showed the following cure rates (defined as normal and stable PSA at 5 years) from Shipley JAMA 1999;281:1598. An update in 2003 based on 4,839 patients showed similar results based on the PSA level and the Gleason Score |
| PSA | Gleason 2-4 | Gleason 5-6 | Gleason 7-10 |
| < 10 | 81% | 86% | 79% |
| 10-20 | 76% | 80% | 83% |
| >20 | 34% | 53% | 26% |
| PSA | Gleason 2-4 | Gleason 5-6 | Gleason 7-10 |
| < 10 | 89% | 81% | 69% |
| 10-20 | 66% | 70% | 53% |
| >20 | 44% | 49% | 28% |
| They also noted that the cure rates were related to how low the PSA went after radiation (the low point or nadir) as noted: |
| PSA Nadir | Cure Rate |
| <0.5 | 83% |
| 0.6 - 0.9 | 68% |
| 1.0 - 1.9 | 56% |
| >2.0 | 28% |
| Roach recently published long term survival
data from the combined RTOG studies (IJROBP 2000;47:609) and defined the
following prognostic groups: Group I : Gleason 2-6, stage T1-2Nx Group II: Gleason 2-6 and stage T3Nx; or GS 2-6 and N+; or Gleason 7 and T1-2Nx Group III: Gleason 7 and T3Nx; or Gleason 7 and N+; or Gleason 8 - 10 and T1-2Nx Group IV: Gleason 8-10 and T3; or Gleason 8 -10 and N+ The disease-specific survival (i.e. it corrects for deaths from other causes) based on these prognostic groups is noted below: |
| Risk Group | 5 Year | 10 Year | 15 Year |
| Group I | 96% | 86% | 72% |
| Group II | 94% | 75% | 61% |
| Group III | 83% | 62% | 39% |
| Group IV | 64% | 34% | 27% |
