Combined hormonal therapy with high-dose diethylstilbestrol diphosphate (DES-DP) intravenous infusion plus vindesine (VND) for the treatment of advanced prostatic carcinoma: a controlled study.

Fifty-one patients with stage D prostate cancer, who had failed primary hormone treatment, were treated with diethylstilbestrol diphosphate (DES-DP) 1.5 g 24 hr intravenous infusion from day 1 to day 7 (group A). In group B, patients were treated with DES-DP as in A, plus vindesine (VND) 3 mg/m2 intravenously on days 8, 15, and 22. Cycles were repeated every 28 days for six consecutive cycles. All 51 patients were evaluable for response, toxicity, time to progression, and survival. Pretreatment clinical and laboratory characteristics were comparable. The National Prostatic Cancer Project Criteria were used for evaluation. A minimum of two cycles were required for evaluation of response. No complete response was seen. In group A, 9 "partial response" and 7 "no change" (80%), and in group B, 11 "partial response" and 12 "no change" (74%) were registered. Median survival time was 40 weeks. Toxicity ranged from mild to moderate. DES-DP + VND seemed to improve duration of objective response compared to DES-DP alone, but the difference was not significant.