Salvage Cryoablation for Radiorecurrent Prostate Cancer: Initial Experience at a Regional Health Care System

Local recurrence after radiotherapy for prostate cancer remains challenging to treat effectively. Although oncologic control is highest with salvage prostatectomy, the procedure is associated with substantial morbidity.

To identify factors associated with successful salvage cryoablation for radiorecurrent prostate cancer.

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients who underwent salvage cryoablation at our institution between 2005 and 2015. All patients had biopsy-proven local recurrence after radiotherapy. Patients with seminal vesicle invasion or metastases were excluded. Complete follow-up was obtained for all patients.

Primary study endpoint was biochemical progression-free survival based on the Phoenix criteria.

Seventy-five patients underwent salvage cryotherapy. Mean patient age was 69.3 years. The overall biochemical salvage rate was 50.7% at a median follow-up of 3.9 years. The following factors were independently associated with successful cryotherapy: Precryotherapy Gleason score of 3 + 3 or 3 + 4, low precryotherapy prostate-specific antigen (PSA), low precryotherapy PSA density, longer time to PSA nadir after radiotherapy, and low postcryotherapy PSA nadir. A postcryotherapy PSA nadir of 0.5 ng/mL or less was associated with a biochemical progression-free survival of 79.7% at 3 years and 64.7% at 5 years, whereas a postcryotherapy PSA nadir above 0.5 was associated with a biochemical progression-free survival of 5.6% at 3 years and 0% at 5 years (p < 0.0001).

Approximately 50% of the patients achieved biochemical salvage with cryoablation at 5 years. Nadir PSA after salvage was the strongest predictor of biochemical progression-free survival in our cohort.