Radical Prostatectomy for Patients With Oligometastatic Prostate Cancer

Cancer progresses in a stepwise fashion. Oligometastatic cancer is an intermediate stage of tumor spread between localized disease and disseminated metastases. Oligometastatic prostate cancer is defined as up to five extrapelvic lesions on conventional imaging. There are controversies surrounding the management of this malignancy, but retrospective and population-based studies suggest a role for radical prostatectomy. Despite insufficient data to draw conclusions regarding the effectiveness of aggressive therapies on overall or cancer-specific survival of patients with oligometastatic prostate cancer, current studies suggest that surgery decreases tumor burden, disease-related morbidity, and the need for palliative surgical intervention, while increasing the period of time to development of castration-resistant disease.