Post-prostatectomy radiation therapy for locally recurrent prostate cancer

Complete androgen blockade vs. medical castration alone as adjuvant androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer patients following radical prostatectomy: a retrospective cohort study

Background:

Till date, the optimal treatment strategy for delivering adjuvant androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in localized and locally advanced prostate cancer (PCa), as a lower stage in PCa progression compared with metastatic PCa, is still unclear. This study compares the efficacy of castration alone with complete androgen blockade (CAB) as adjuvant ADT in patients with localized and locally advanced PCa undergoing radical prostatectomy (RP).

Methods:

Patients diagnosed with PCa, without lymph node or distant metastasis, who received RP in West China Hospital between January 2009 and April 2019, were enrolled in this study. We performed survival, multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression, and subgroup analyses.

Results:

A total of 262 patients were enrolled, including 107 patients who received castration alone and 155 patients who received CAB. The survival analysis revealed that there was no significant difference between the two groups (hazard ratios [HR] = 1.07, 95% confidence intervals [95% CI] = 0.60–1.90, P = 0.8195). Moreover, the multivariable Cox model provided similarly negative results before and after adjustment for potential covariant. Similarly, there was no significant difference in the clinical recurrence between the two groups in both non-adjusted and adjusted models. Furthermore, our subgroup analysis showed that CAB achieved better biochemical recurrence (BCR) outcomes than medical castration alone as adjuvant ADT for locally advanced PCa (P for interaction = 0.0247, HR = 0.37, 95% CI = 0.14–1.00, P = 0.0497).

Conclusion:

Combined androgen blockade achieved better BCR outcomes compared with medical castration alone as adjuvant ADT for locally advanced PCa without lymph node metastasis.

The Use of High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) Plus 150mg Bicalutamide as First Line Salvage Therapy for Local Recurrent Prostate Cancer

Patients with localized prostate cancer (PCa) are often treated with radical prostatectomy (RP). However, more than 30% of such patients have high risk of recurrence. Salvage radiotherapy (SRT), androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and combination of radiotherapy and ADT are the standard care for recurrent PCa. Recently, high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has gradually applied in the treatment of recurrent PCa. Here, we proposed a hypothesis that combined HIFU and bicalutamide 150mg as first line salvage therapy to treat patients with local recurrent PCa with visible lesions due to the following advantages: (1) HIFU is effective in reducing local tumor load, and bicalutamide 150mg is a feasible and safety option to combine with HIFU. (2) Compared with radiotherapy, HIFU plus 150mg bicalutamide is minimal invasiveness with fewer adverse effects and better quality of life(QOL); (3) Radiotherapy can be preserved as the second-line salvage method in the cases who are failure to HIFU and 150mg bicalutamide combination. More clinical trials are warranted to confirm this hypothesis in treatment with recurrent PCa.

Moderate hypofractionated post-prostatectomy radiation therapy is feasible and well tolerated: experience from a single tertiary cancer centre

PURPOSE

Conventional post-prostatectomy radiation therapy comprises 6.5-8 weeks of treatment, therefore, hypofractionated and shortened schemes arouse increasing interest. We describe our experience regarding feasibility and clinical outcome of a post-prostatectomy moderate hypofractionated image-guided radiotherapy schedule MATERIALS AND METHODS: From Oct 2015-Mar 2020, 113 patients, median age of 62 years-old (range 45-76) and prostate adenocarcinoma of low risk (30%), intermediate risk (49%) and high risk (21%) were included for adjuvant (34%) or salvage radiation therapy (66%) after radical prostatectomy (RP). All patients underwent radiotherapy with image-guided IMRT/VMAT to a total dose of 62.5 Gy in 2.5 Gy/fraction in 25 fractions. Sixteen patients (14%) received concomitant androgen deprivation therapy.

RESULTS

With a median follow-up of 29 months (range 3-60 months) all patients but three are alive. Eleven patients (10%) developed exclusive biochemical relapse while 19 patients (17%) presented macroscopically visible relapse: prostatectomy bed in two patients (2%), pelvic lymph nodes in 13 patients (11.5%) and distant metastases in four patients (4%). The 3 years actuarial rates for OS, bFRS, and DMFS were 99.1, 91.1 and 91.2%, respectively. Acute and late tolerance was satisfactory. Maximal acute genitourinary (AGU) toxicity was G2 in 8% of patients; maximal acute gastrointestinal (AGI) toxicity was G2 in 3.5% of patients; maximal late genitourinary (LGU) toxicity was G3 in 1% of patients and maximal late gastrointestinal (LGI) toxicity was G2 in 2% of patients. There were no cases of severe acute or late toxicity. No relationship was found between acute or late GI/GU adverse effects and dosimetric parameters, age, presence of comorbidities or concomitant treatments.

CONCLUSIONS

Hypofractionated radiotherapy (62.5 Gy in 25 2.5 Gy fractions) is feasible and well tolerated with low complication rates allowing for a moderate dose-escalation that offers encouraging clinical results for biochemical control and survival in patients with prostate cancer after radical prostatectomy.

Assessment of biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer (Review)

The assessment of the risk of biochemical recurrence (BCR) is critical in the management of males with prostate cancer (PC). Over the past decades, a comprehensive effort has been focusing on improving risk stratification; a variety of models have been constructed using PC-associated pathological features and molecular alterations occurring at the genome, protein and RNA level. Alterations in RNA expression (lncRNA, miRNA and mRNA) constitute the largest proportion of the biomarkers of BCR. In this article, we systemically review RNA-based BCR biomarkers reported in PubMed according to the PRISMA guidelines. Individual miRNAs, mRNAs, lncRNAs and multi-gene panels, including the commercially available signatures, Oncotype DX and Prolaris, will be discussed; details related to cohort size, hazard ratio and 95% confidence intervals will be provided. Mechanistically, these individual biomarkers affect multiple pathways critical to tumorigenesis and progression, including epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), Wnt, growth factor receptor, cell proliferation, immune checkpoints and others. This variety in the mechanisms involved not only validates their associations with BCR, but also highlights the need for the coverage of multiple pathways in order to effectively stratify the risk of BCR. Updates of novel biomarkers and their mechanistic insights are considered, which suggests new avenues to pursue in the prediction of BCR. Additionally, the management of patients with BCR and the potential utility of the stratification of the risk of BCR in salvage treatment decision making for these patients are briefly covered. Limitations will also be discussed.