Docetaxel Followed by Radical Prostatectomy in Patients With High Risk Localized Prostate Cancer

The purpose of this research study is to determine if the combination of chemotherapy and hormone therapy is safe and helpful for patients who plan to have their high-risk prostate cancer surgically removed. Some physicians believe that patients with high risk cancer that is located in one area, may have an early but small spread of the cancer outside of the prostate, and perhaps even to distant organs. Therefore, better treatments for the entire body are needed to improve the ability of surgery or other local therapies to cure prostate cancer. Since chemotherapy is beginning to demonstrate increasing activity in advanced prostate cancer patients, it is possible that using chemotherapy combined with hormonal therapy earlier in the course of localized but high risk patients might improve the outcomes for these patients.