[Rescue radical prostatectomy following radiation in prostatic carcinoma]

Accepted methods for the treatment of localized prostatic cancer are radiotherapy and radical surgery. Results of different authors and analysis of survival curves suggest a higher cure rate with surgery, although there are no prospective randomized studies that demonstrate it. Patients treated with radical prostatectomy who relapse locally are usually treated with radiotherapy or hormone therapy. On the other hand, patients with failed radiation therapy raise a difficult therapeutic solution. A wait and see policy or early hormone therapy are generally accepted as treatment options as well as additional radiotherapy or salvage surgery in selected patients. General experience with salvage surgery is short. Only 228 cases, including two presented in this study, have been published, lacking data on long term survival. Herein we present two patients treated with salvage surgery for radiation failure and discuss the different treatment options in such cases.