Early versus deferred androgen suppression in the treatment of advanced prostatic cancer.

Prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in men. Treatment goals for men with advanced prostate cancer include prolonging survival, preventing or delaying symptoms due to disease progression, improving and maintaining quality of life, reducing treatment related morbidity. Androgen suppression therapy is considered a mainstay of treatment for men with advanced prostate cancer. However it is not clear whether early androgen suppression for men with locally advanced disease or asymptomatic metastases improves length and quality of life compared to androgen suppression deferred until signs and symptoms of clinical progression.