Lymph-node relapsed prostate cancer management and PET-driven external beam radiotherapy: salvage or palliative treatment?

Q J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2015 Dec;59(4):411-9. Epub 2015 Sep 1.

Abstract

New imaging modalities such as choline- positron emission tomography (PET) or PET/computed tomography (CT) may be useful to identify prostate cancer patients with small volume, limited nodal relapse ("oligo-recurrent"), potentially amenable to metastasis directed treatment (e.g. radiotherapy,) with the aim of long-term control of the disease, even in a setting traditionally considered prognostically unfavorable, so usually gone to palliative treatment. This report reviews the diagnostic tools and the main published data about the role of PET or PET/CT driven radiation therapy, (not only for the diagnosis, but also for the planning) in relapsed node prostate carcinoma, as an alternative therapeutic strategy than surgery or androgen deprivation therapy.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Lymphatic Metastasis
  • Male
  • Palliative Care / methods*
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / radiotherapy*
  • Radiography
  • Radionuclide Imaging
  • Radiotherapy, Image-Guided / methods*
  • Recurrence
  • Salvage Therapy / methods*