Oral cyclophosphamide for the management of hormone-refractory prostate cancer.

Thirty patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer were treated with cycles of oral cyclophosphamide (100 mg/m2/day for 14 days, with a 14-day gap). Eighteen patients had a significant improvement in symptoms of advanced disease, 6 had objective partial remissions and 13 had stabilisation of disease (criteria of National Prostatic Cancer Project). The median survival from the time of diagnosis was 33.3 months, and from the commencement of cyclophosphamide 12.7 months. The treatment was well tolerated. oral cyclophosphamide is active in the treatment of advanced hormone-refractory prostate cancer and yields symptomatic and objective remissions without undue side effects. This observation requires validation, with further testing of its impact on survival in randomised clinical trials.