Men who have decided to have radiation as their first (primary) treatment for prostate cancer have a one-third chance of recurrence. Some of those men have salvage radical prostatectomy (SRP) to fight the recurrence. A study shows this might be a good idea. Antoni Vilaseca, MD, etal from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, studied 251 men [...]
A retrospective study, using the SEER Date, a U.S. national database, analyzed data from men diagnosed with prostate cancer and found that salvage radical prostatectomy (SRP) improved the long-term survival in men whose cancer has returned after receiving radiation therapy. We know that approximately 30% of men who have radiation therapy as their primary therapy will have a recurrence [...]
There has been a lot of conversation about the role of and the use of multi-parametric MRIs in the initial diagnostic stages of prostate cancer, but little is known about its potential clinical application in the use of early salvage radiotherapy after failed radical prostatectomy. In a study to exam the potential of multi-parametric MRIs [...]
Currently, there are a number of different treatments used to treat recurrent prostate cancer when the primary treatment had radiation has failed. In this situation surgery is considered very difficult and can only be successfully performed by an experienced surgeon, so alternative treatments are often considered. Long-term data about the success of these alternative treatments [...]
It would be of great advantage to us if we were able to improve the early detection of responders to salvage external beam radiotherapy (RT) after failed radical prostatectomy (RP). Early detection would allow us to make earlier treatment decisions which should provide for better results. In an attempt to better improve our understanding of [...]
Somehow I have been negligent and not let people know that I have written and posted a major update of my “Guide to Advanced Prostate Cancer.” As in the past, it is available as a free download from the Malecare web site. Helping me to update the book was prostate cancer survivor Craig Pynn and [...]
The standard of treatment for men who have a localized recurrence in lymph nodes (LN) after surgery is intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) as well as with men who have high-risk prostate cancer which includes cancer in both the prostate and seminal vesicles (SV). As with all treatments the use of IMRT comes with many [...]
When I had my prostate cancer recurrence it was characterized by a PSA in the mid 80s and a few positive lymph nodes showing on scans. My situation (oligo-recurrent prostate cancer) was described in a recent literature review called Salvage Therapy of Small Volume Prostate Cancer Nodal Failures: A Review of the Literature. The review [...]
Men who elect to have a radical prostatectomy (surgical treatment for prostate cancer) as their primary treatment often panic if they find out that they had positive surgical margins (PSMs). Positive surgical margins are an indication for the use of adjuvant radiotherapy. Despite this automatic response the association between PSMs and prostate cancer-specific mortality (CSM) [...]
Researchers at Duke University observed a survival benefit for men who had salvage radiation therapy (RT) for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) failure after radical prostatectomy (RP) in the men who experience a rapid rises in PSA doubling time (DT,< 6 months). They then asked whether such a benefit also exits in men with a protracted PSA [...]
