Salvage Options For Biochemical Recurrence After Primary Therapy For Prostate Cancer
August 11th, 2008 Posted in prostate cancer, prostatectomy, radiation therapyDespite excellent success rates with radical prostatectomy and radiotherapy for the treatment of prostate cancer, a significant number of patients will experience a rise in their serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) level.
A variety of salvage options in this scenario have been investigated and the choice to pursue surveillance, single therapy or combination therapy depends on clinical assessment of risk and location of tumor recurrence.
Current imaging options will be reviewed and treatment results based on image guidance will be discussed. After radical prostatectomy, for example, patients with low risk local disease may not require secondary therapy or may benefit from salvage radiotherapy. Those with higher risk disease, based on imaging, PSA kinetics and tumor pathology may require systemic androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) with or without radiotherapy. Local recurrence after radiotherapy has the options of cryotherapy, HIFU brachytherapy or salvage surgery.