title: PSA failure and the risk of death in prostate cancer patients treated with radiotherapy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the relationship between prostate-specific antigen (PSA) failure and cause-specific and overall survival in prostate cancer patients treated with radical radiotherapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with and without PSA failure were compared with respect to overall survival and cause-specific survival in a cohort of 1786 patients. The relationship between PSA failure and survival was further investigated among six subgroups defined by three tumor risk groups (high, intermediate, and low risk based on T stage, Gleason score, and presenting PSA) and two age groups (<75 years and >/=75 years).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 5-year overall survival among patients who had PSA failure was 79.5% vs. 87.5% among patients who had not failed (p = 0.0003). The corresponding 5-year cause-specific survival was 84.4% vs. 99.0% (p <0.0001). When the six subgroups are considered separately, PSA failure was associated with a worse cause-specific survival in the groups with intermediate- and high-risk disease. PSA failure was only associated with a worse overall survival in one subgroup: patients younger than 75 with high-risk disease. Deaths from nonprostate causes made the survival curves of patients with and without PSA failure in the other subgroups almost identical.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PSA failure in prostate cancer patients treated with radiotherapy was associated with a poorer overall survival, which is seen mainly in younger patients with high-risk disease.
authors.affiliation: Radiation Therapy Program, Fraser Valley Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. wkwan@bccancer.bc.ca
authors.forename: Winkle
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kwan
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pickles
authors.forename: Graeme
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.forename: Mitchell
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agranovich
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Berthelet
authors.forename: Mira
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keyes
authors.forename: Charmaine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kim-Sing
authors.forename: W James
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Chuck
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Paltiel
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011446:Prospective Studies; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D015996:Survival Rate; D017211:Treatment Failure
chemical_list: D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen