The timing and extent of androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer: weighing the clinical evidence.

Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is an effective means of palliating symptoms of prostate cancer but is associated with significant toxicities that increase with treatment duration. Primary ADT in men with localized disease provides no survival advantage. Neoadjuvant ADT, when combined with external beam radiation, improves survival for men with locally advanced disease. Immediate adjuvant androgen deprivation does not seem to benefit most men undergoing radical prostatectomy. No evidence supports combined androgen blockade or monotherapy with nonsteroidal antiandrogens for locally advanced prostate cancer. ADT with orchiectomy or gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists or antagonists is standard care for men with metastatic prostate cancer.