Next-generation therapy for residual prostate cancer

Prostate cancer claimed an estimated 136,500 lives globally in 2011. Ironically, the best existing treatment strategies provide survival benefits and missed opportunities to further improve outcomes. Prostatectomy provides the greatest survival benefit, albeit the risk of systemic recurrence increases dramatically with extracapsular involvement. To date, further systemic treatment is not generally prescribed for these 'high-risk' patients until such time as advanced disease is diagnosed based on persistent high PSA levels and/or when larger tumors are confirmed by imaging. This recurrent form of the disease is most often terminal. Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) provides outstanding early control for these patients, which is rather tragic as the early benefits of ADT are lost within 2 years for most men, as the cancer again progresses to an incurable 'late-stage' castration-resistant form of the disease with a median survival of approximately 18 months. We review the potential of targeted α-therapy as an adjuvant with minimal side effects for early-stage high-risk patients to be administered immediately following prostatectomy and/or during ADT.