Hormone Duration Comparison

When radiotherapy is used after surgery for prostate cancer, it can be given either alone or together with hormone therapy. Both approaches are commonly used in the UK. We do not know which is better and, if it is better to use hormone therapy, we don’t know for how long it should be given. RADICALS will test whether men receiving radiotherapy after surgery also need hormone therapy.

In the Hormone Duration Comparison men are divided into three groups:

• men in the first group will have radiotherapy alone
• men in the second group will have radiotherapy and six months of hormone therapy
• men in the third group will have radiotherapy and two years of hormone therapy

This is the design of the Hormone Duration Comparison: