Downsizing and prostate cancer.

In the treatment of prostatic carcinoma, neoadjuvant androgen deprivation therapy has been shown to confer several clinical and quality-of-life benefits. Compared with the luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonists, gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonists can achieve castrate levels of testosterone much faster, without the risks associated with testosterone flare. They can provide equal or superior efficacy in apoptosis, radiation sensitization, and prostate volume reduction. Urologists are increasingly employing neoadjuvant androgen deprivation in patients undergoing prostatectomy, radiation, brachytherapy, and cryotherapy.