Local relapse of prostate cancer after primary definitive treatment: the management

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy in men and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in industrialized countries. Even if the healing chances are very high after definitive treatment of localized disease, 20-30% of patients experience recurrence.

A review of the literature on the management of local recurrent prostate cancer was conducted using the Medline and Embase electronic databases. Search terms included "biochemical relapse", "PSA recurrence", "prostate cancer", "prostate cancer recurrence", "prostate salvage therapy", "radiorecurrent prostate cancer", "Re-HIFU", "post HIFU", "post cryoablation", "postradiation", and "postprostatectomy salvage". The search was restricted to English-language articles. The websites of guidelines organizations (EAU, AUA, NICE) were consulted in order to identify evidence-based practice guidelines. The present role of salvage prostatectomy and radiation therapy was studied and today's outcomes and tomorrow perspectives of salvage focal therapies as cryoablation and HIFU have been analyzed.

Although the treatment landscape for patients with biochemical recurrence prostate cancer remains challenging, new research is helping to identify patient populations suitable for specific therapies.

Further evaluation in prospective clinical trials will hopefully confirm the role of therapeutic options in clinical practice and the impact on the long-term survival.