Influence of patient age on biochemical freedom from disease in patients undergoing conformal proton radiotherapy of organ-confined prostate cancer.

Objectives: To examine a large, single-institution series of patients to test the perception among clinicians that radiotherapy is preferred for "older" patients and surgery should be indicated for "younger" men. Both radiotherapy and surgery are used to control prostate cancer, and both yield similar results in terms of long-term biochemical disease-free (bNED) survival.

Methods: The bNED survival results from more than 1000 patients treated solely with conformal radiotherapy were analyzed to determine whether a difference in outcome supervened for patients younger than 60 years of age versus older patients.

Results: No statistically significant difference in bNED survival was found, in terms of patient age. Statistically significant predictors of outcome included pretreatment prostate-specific antigen level, clinical stage at diagnosis, and Gleason score.

Conclusions: Patient age younger than 60 years versus older than 60 years at treatment did not influence bNED survival significantly. Patient age at treatment should not be used in and of itself to recommend one type of treatment over another.