[Neoadjuvant therapy before radical prostatectomy - indications and protocols]

As neoadjuvant chemotherapy is established for a variety of nonorgan confined malignancies, neoadjuvant hormone ablation for hormone sensitive prostate cancer has demonstrated encouraging results. Neoadjuvant therapy not only provides possible early systemic treatment for subclinical distant disease, but also aims to improve local disease control and to increase the number of patients eligible for definitive local therapy via downstaging. However, only limited, heterogenous studies are available. Therefore, prospective high quality studies are urgently needed to assess the future role of neoadjuvant hormone ablation.