Introduction

An international opinion leaders’ meeting was held in Los Angeles in June 2003 to discuss the current and future direction of hormone therapy in the treatment of prostate cancer.

The participants at the meeting comprised an international panel of experts from Europe, the USA and Asia, who gave their opinions on the current range of treatment regimens for prostate cancer and the role of hormone therapy within these, plus the likely future treatment strategies and developments in this field.

The different treatment combinations with hormone therapy were discussed—hormone therapy alone, or in combination with surgery or radiotherapy in both the neoadjuvant and adjuvant setting, or with chemotherapy—with a particular focus on recent data and ongoing trials.

It was apparent that there are many challenges in the utilisation of hormonal therapy including the timing of treatment initiation, the optimal duration of treatment and the relative merits of intermittent versus continuous therapy. It was recognised that there was considerable research focus on the use of multimodality regimens, in particular for the management of high-risk disease.

Reflecting the international panel, the participants also discussed the role of hormonal therapy in the management of locally advanced disease in the different regions of the world—Europe, Asia and the USA. Differences in the diagnosis and treatment were apparent in the different regions and also between countries in those regions.

Hormone therapy plays a pivotal role in the management of prostate cancer and it is hoped that this publication will provide urologists with a valuable update on its optimum use now and in the future.