Interstitial Brachytherapy With or Without External-Beam Radiation Therapy in Treating Patients With Prostate Cancer | NCT00063882 | Trialant

Interstitial Brachytherapy With or Without External-Beam Radiation Therapy in Treating Patients With Prostate Cancer | NCT00063882 | Trialant

Official Title: A Phase III Study Comparing Combined External Beam Radiation and Transperineal Interstitial Permanent Brachytherapy With Brachytherapy Alone for Selected Patients With Intermediate Risk Prostatic Carcinoma
Brief Summary: RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays and other sources to damage tumor cells. Interstitial brachytherapy uses radioactive material placed directly into or near a tumor to kill tumor cells. Combining interstitial brachytherapy with external-beam radiation therapy may kill more tumor cells. It is not yet known whether interstitial brachytherapy is more effective with or without external-beam radiation therapy in treating prostate cancer.

PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of interstitial brachytherapy with or without external-beam radiation therapy in treating patients who have prostate cancer.
Detailed Description: OBJECTIVES:

Compare the 5-year freedom from progression in patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer treated with interstitial brachytherapy with or without external beam radiotherapy (EBRT).

Compare biochemical (i.e., prostate-specific antigen) failure, biochemical failure by the Phoenix definition, disease-specific survival, local progression, and distant metastases in patients treated with these regimens.

Compare morbidity and quality of life of patients treated with these regimens.

Determine the feasibility of collecting Medicare data in a large Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) prostate cancer clinical trial for cost effectiveness and cost utility analysis of combined treatment with interstitial brachytherapy and EBRT.

Prospectively collect diagnostic biopsy samples from these patients for future biomarker analyses.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to disease stage (T1c vs T2a or T2b), Gleason score (≤ 6 vs 7), prostate-specific antigen (< 10 ng/mL vs 10-20 ng/mL), and prior neoadjuvant hormonal therapy (yes vs no). Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.

Arm I: Patients undergo external beam radiotherapy 5 days a week for 5 weeks. Within 2-4 weeks of radiotherapy, patients undergo interstitial brachytherapy with iodine I 125 or palladium Pd 103 seeds.

Arm II: Patients undergo interstitial brachytherapy only, as in arm I. Quality of life is assessed at baseline, at 4, 12, and 24 months, and then annually for 3 years.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed at 3-5 weeks, at 4, 6, 9, and 12 months, every 6 months for 4 years, and then annually thereafter.