New Cancer Therapy Delays Hormone Treatment by 20 Months

Thousands of men facing the difficult side effects of hormone therapy for prostate cancer now have a reason to hope.

Researchers at Radboudumc in the Netherlands discovered that PSMA therapy, a treatment using light radioactivity to target tumors from within, can delay the need for hormone therapy by an average of 20 months in men with limited metastatic prostate cancer. The study involved 58 men and was published in The Lancet Oncology in March 2025.

The timing matters tremendously. Around 15,000 men in the Netherlands receive prostate cancer diagnoses each year, and many dread the hormone therapy stage of treatment because of its harsh side effects like hot flashes, muscle loss, and severe fatigue.

Dr. James Nagarajah, the study's lead researcher and Nuclear Medicine Physician, explains that more men are actively seeking alternatives. "More and more men want to avoid hormone therapy because of the unpleasant side effects that can occur," he says. "We wanted to investigate whether PSMA therapy could delay hormone therapy, and whether it might become a suitable alternative in the future."

The results exceeded expectations. Half the men received PSMA therapy immediately after surgery or targeted radiation, while the control group waited for disease progression. After 27 months, only 52% of men who received PSMA therapy experienced disease worsening, compared to 97% in the control group.

The treatment involved just four sessions and caused minimal side effects. Quality of life remained strong throughout the treatment period.

The Bright Side

First author Bastiaan Privé points out an unexpected bonus: PSMA therapy sometimes shrinks tumors enough that men become eligible for targeted radiation again. This could push hormone therapy even further into the future for some patients.

The therapy was already known to help men who had exhausted all other options, extending both survival and quality of life in about two out of three patients. Now it's proving effective much earlier in the disease progression, giving men more time to live normally before facing harsher treatments.

For the thousands of men diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, this research opens a gentler path forward during an incredibly difficult time.