Radiation Therapy in Carcinoma of the Prostate: A Contributing Cause of Urinary Incontinence

We believe that radiation therapy as a postoperative adjuvant or preceding salvage prostatectomy for carcinoma is particularly conducive to the complication of urinary incontinence by virtue of its sclerosing effect on residual sphincter mechanisms. Obviously, such dual therapy will continue to prevail in the foreseeable future but patients should be notified of the added risk and be prepared for further treatment of the incontinence. Unfortunately, these patients have an extra risk of complications and failure from anti-incontinence operations.