Surgical approaches to local failure after definitive therapy

For patients who have undergone attempted curative radiotherapy or cryotherapy for prostate cancer, local failure is demonstrated by rising prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels and a positive biopsy in the absend of metastases. These patients will sometimes benefit from surgical approaches such as salvage prostatectomy, or cryoablation. In this article, the appropriate patient selection criteria and published results for salvage procedures will be examined.