Bicalutamide (Casodex) is an antiandrogen or hormonal therapy. Daily treatment with bicalutamide is shown to cut the risk of progression of prostate cancer by 44 percent. It can also reduce the overall risk of death by 35 percent.

The study was done on 1370 patients who were randomized to receive either radiation and a placebo or radiation and 150mg once a day tablet bicalutamide. The findings showed that patients with locally advanced prostate cancer receiving the bicalutamide faired better than those with the placebo. This may be a more suitable treatment instead of castration therapies which can adversely affect the patient’s quality of life.

Bicalutamide has additional quality of life benefits relative to castration in terms of maintaining sexual interest, physical ability, and bone mineral density.