Recently there have been a number of conversations in the prostate media around the topic of treating oligometastatic prostate cancer with a curative goal. Oligometastatic prostate cancer describes the disease state where primary treatment has failed as evidenced by an increasing PSA along with scanning evidence of a limited number of lymph nodes involved in and near to the prostate bed.
Because of the development of better scanning technology and scanning contrasts more oligometastatic disease has been identified and so the conversation escalated about their treatment.
The most commonly discussed treatments have involved radiation therapy. In a presentation at the recent meeting of the Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO) Dr. Jeffrey Karnes discussed the possible role of surgery to treat men with oligometastatic disease.
Dr. Carnes confirmed the well-known fact that 33% of men who have primary treatment will ultimately experience a biochemical recurrence, which can be indicative of local or distant relapse