Objective    To assess the efficacy of neo-adjuvant hormone therapy (NHT) in localized advanced prostate cancer.     Methods     We searched Cochrane Library

PubMed

EMBASE

Chinese Biomedical Literature Database

Chinese Journal Full-text Database (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure

CNKI)

China Scientific Journal Database (CSJD

VIP database) and Wanfang Database for randomized trials comparing NHT plus radical prostatectomy with radical prostatectomy alone published during 1993 to 2010. Data were extracted and evaluated by two reviewers independently with a designed extraction form recommended by Cochrane

The references in the extracted literature were also retrieved. The RevMan 5.0 software was used for data analysis.     Results     Eighteen randomized trials involving 4 267 patients were included. The results of meta-analyses indicated that NHT prior to prostatectomy did not improve positive seminal vesicles rates

but did significantly improve disease-free survival (RR=1.41

95% CI 1.12 to 1.78

P=0.003)

and significantly reduced positive margin rates (RR=0.48

95% CI 0.43 to 0.53

P0.00001)

lymph node invasion (RR=0.64

95% CI 0.44 to 0.93

P=0.02).     Conclusion     NHT plus radical prostatectomy significantly reduces positive margin rates and lymph node invasion and improves disease-free survival rates

but has no effect on positive seminal vesicles rates.