Eighty-eight patients with hormone-resistant Stage IV prostate cancer were treated with a five-drug chemotherapy program. Patient demographic data, prior therapy, symptoms, extent of disease, and laboratory studies were analyzed statistically to evaluate the association of these parameters with survival from the onset of chemotherapy. Factors associated with short survival included age >65, severe bone pain, poor performance status, presence of soft tissue metastases, anemia, elevation of serum LDH, SGOT, alkaline and acid phosphatases, and prolactin, and hypoalbuminemia. Race, stage at initial diagnosis, prior radiation therapy, prior orchiectomy, and elevation of CEA had no prognostic association. We suggest that clinical trials of new therapies of hormone-resistant prostate cancer take into account the presence of these prognostic factors in the analysis of the results of therapeutic programs.
Cancer 44:763-775, 1979.
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A creases, it is becoming apparent that different patients who have cancer of a given organ, histologic type, and stage may nonetheless have quite different prognoses for the length and quality of their survival. Such differences may be partly explained by the response of each individual to treatment, but clearly differences still exist between patients who have the same response to therapy. The delineation of factors which influence survival has great implications for the discovery and assessment of new treatment modalities.22 Major risk factors must be analyzed in order to introduce as little bias as possible into the analysis of randomized clinical trials. Phase I1 studies should also in-From T