Changing the prostate cancer management pathway: why Focal Therapy is a step forward

Prostate Cancer (PCa) remains an exception among solid cancers since organ-sparing procedures are not considered as a standard option. Despite most men harbour low to intermediate risk disease at diagnosis, the vast majority are advised towards radical treatment. We performed a literature review to highlight and discuss why focal therapy (FT) would represent a feasible and attractive option in appropriately selected men. The rationale supporting this strategy relies in epidemiological, pathological, molecular and clinical findings. These include the shift towards the diagnosis of less aggressive and unifocal PCas, the presence of an identifiable index lesion which drives the natural history of the disease together with the absence of significant disease elsewhere in the gland in many patients. New diagnostic tools, especially multiparametric MRI, allow the detection of the index lesion with good accuracy and high reliability. FT might provide acceptable disease control and at the same time substantially reduce treatment related side-effects in those men who are eligible for such strategy. To allow its adoption as a standard of care, future studies need to address current limitations such as the lack of direct comparative research against standard treatment, as well as long-term disease-control outcomes.