Abstract
The guidelines for the use of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) have changed significantly over the last 5 years. This paper reviews the current recommendations and documents the reasons for these changes, in a review of the world's literature on ADT over the last 5 years. Special emphasis on randomized controlled trials and high-impact journals was included in the Medline search and review. One hundred articles on this topic written in the last 5 years were reviewed. Fifty-nine contained nonindustry-biased findings in major-impact journals and were available in English. The benefits of ADT are evident in several areas, including neoadjuvantly and adjuvantly in patients treated with external beam radiation therapy for intermediate- and high-risk disease; in patients who have undergone prostatectomy and who are found to have lymph node involvement on surgical resection; in high-risk patients after definitive therapy; and in patients who have developed symptomatic local progression or metastasis. This paper reviews the risks and benefits in each of these scenarios and the risks of androgen deprivation in general, and delineates the areas where ADT was previously recommended, but has been found to no longer be of benefit.