A study which has been running for a very long time, has revealed that a short course of hormone blocking therapy could prove beneficial, albeit in small amounts, to patients of prostate cancer. The benefit, however, is limited to a very specific group of patients who under go radiation therapy.

Dr. Christopher U. Jones, a radiation oncologist at Radiological Associates of Sacramento, and a member of the group which carried out the study, has confirmed that the ten year survival rate for patients who received radiation therapy combined with the treatment to block their male hormones was as high as 62%, while the same for patients who received radiation alone was 57%.

Furthermore, biopsies taken confirmed that there were no traces of cancer in 78% of the men who received combined treatment. In contrast the same was 60% was patients who relied on radiation therapy alone.

"The benefit is statistically significant but not huge, because we weren't expecting large differences in such cases", Jones shared.

The findings of the study are now being accessed further.