The Swedish national guidelines on prostate cancer, part 2: recurrent, metastatic and castration resistant disease

Scand J Urol. 2022 Aug;56(4):278-284. doi: 10.1080/21681805.2022.2093396. Epub 2022 Jul 7.

Abstract

Objective: There is now an unprecedented amount of evidence to consider when revising prostate cancer guidelines. We believe that there is a value in publishing summaries of national clinical guidelines in English for others to read and comment on.

Methods: This is part 2 of a summary of the Swedish prostate cancer guidelines that were published in June 2022. This part covers recurrence after local treatment and management of metastatic and castration resistant disease. Part 1 covers early detection, diagnostics, staging, patient support and management of non-metastatic disease.

Results: The 2022 Swedish guidelines include several new recommendations. Among these is a recommendation of a period of observation with repeated PSA tests for patients with approximately 10 years' life expectancy who experience a BCR more than 2-5 years after radical prostatectomy, to allow for estimating the PSA doubling time before deciding whether to give salvage radiotherapy or not. Recent results from the PEACE-1 trial led to the recommendation of triple-treatment with a GnRH agonist, abiraterone plus prednisolone and 6 cycles of docetaxel for patients with high-volume metastatic disease who are fit for chemotherapy. The Swedish guidelines differ from the European ones by having more restrictive recommendations about genetic testing of and high-dose zoledronic acid or denosumab treatment for men with metastatic prostate cancer, and by recommending considering bicalutamide monotherapy for selected patients with low-volume metastatic disease.

Conclusions: The 2022 Swedish prostate cancer guidelines include several new recommendations and some that differ from the European guidelines.

Keywords: Prostate cancer; castration resistant; guidelines; metastatic; recurrence; treatment.

MeSH terms

  • Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / therapeutic use
  • Denosumab / therapeutic use
  • Docetaxel / therapeutic use
  • Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone / therapeutic use
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Orchiectomy
  • Prednisolone / therapeutic use
  • Prostate-Specific Antigen*
  • Prostatic Neoplasms, Castration-Resistant* / drug therapy
  • Sweden
  • Zoledronic Acid / therapeutic use

Substances

  • Docetaxel
  • Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone
  • Denosumab
  • Zoledronic Acid
  • Prednisolone
  • Prostate-Specific Antigen