Neoadjuvant radiotherapy for locally advanced and high-risk prostate cancer

Men presenting with high-risk or locally advanced prostate cancer may benefit from a combination of radiotherapy and surgery to maximize local control. Adjuvant radiotherapy following surgery has improved biochemical progression-free survival, metastasis-free survival, lengthened the time to hormone therapy use and improved overall survival in three randomized-phase III trials. One surprising result of the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) 8794 trial and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) 22911 trial is that treatment failure was mainly a result of lack of local control. This finding has led to a new appreciation of local control as a determinant of survival and the role for combined modality approaches within a multidisciplinary team in the treatment of high-risk and locally advanced prostate cancer. One emerging novel approach is the use of preoperative or intraoperative radiotherapy in addition to best surgical and systemic treatments. Preliminary results from clinical trials indicate low rates of intraoperative toxic effects, an advantage of short treatment times and smaller image-guided radiotherapy treatment volumes when compared with postoperative radiotherapy. Potential disadvantages include over-treatment of patients and lack of data on long-term toxic effects. We present the published treatment approaches and rational for preoperative and intraoperative radiotherapy and compare these methods to the utility of postoperative radiotherapy.