Recovery of serum testosterone following neoadjuvant and adjuvant androgen deprivation therapy in men treated with prostate brachytherapy

AIM: To investigate the time course of testosterone (T) recovery after cessation of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in patients treated with brachytherapy. METHODS: One-hundred and seventy-four patients treated between June 1999 and February 2009 were studied. Patients were divided into a short-term usage group (<= 12 mo, n = 91) and a long-term usage group (>= 36 mo, n = 83) according to the duration of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist therapy. Median follow-up was 29 mo in the short-term group and was 60 mo in the long-term group. RESULTS: Cumulative incidence rates of T recovery to normal and supracastrate levels at 24 mo after cessation were 28.8% and 74.6%, respectively, in the long-term usage group, whereas these values were 96.4% and 98.8% in the short-term usage group. T recovery to normal and supracastrate levels occurred significantly more rapidly in the short-term than in the long-term usage group (P < 0.001 and P < 0.001, respectively). Five years after cessation, 22.6% of patients maintained a castrate T level in the long-term usage group. On multivariate analysis, lower T levels (< 10 ng/dL) at cessation of ADT was significantly associated with prolonged T recovery to supracastrate levels in the long-term usage group (P = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Lower T levels at cessation of ADT were associated with prolonged T recovery in the long-term usage group. Five years after cessation of long-term ADT, approximately one-fifth of patients still had castrate T levels. When determining the therapeutic effect, especially biochemical control, we should consider this delay in T recovery.