Abstract
Objective. After radical external beam radiation therapy (EBRT), local recurrence may benefit from definitive local therapy. The objective of this study was to evaluate the safety and short-term biochemical results and morbidity after salvage high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment in patients with biopsy-proven local prostate cancer recurrence after EBRT. Material and methods. From October 2006 46 patients were treated with HIFU. Bone scan and abdominal CT/MRI scan were negative. Median follow-up was 9 months (range 3–24 months). Results. The median prostate-specific antigen (PSA) nadir was 0.3 ng/ml (range 0–24 ng/ml). Eighteen patients (39.1%) were classified as failures. In addition, there were four patients (8.7%) with post-HIFU PSA nadir > 0.5 ng/ml. No patients died during follow-up. One patient developed urethrorectal fistulae and was successfully treated conservatively. Two patients developed urethrocutaneous fistulae. Seven patients (15.2%) and one patient (2.1%) developed grade 2 and grade 3 incontinence, respectively. Seven men (15.2%) had erectile function sufficient for intercourse pre-HIFU and only two men (4.3%) post-HIFU. Conclusions. Early results of salvage HIFU in patients with local recurrence of prostate cancer after radical EBRT indicate the procedure to be a reasonable treatment option, but better patient selection criteria are needed. The side-effects are not negligible.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge statistician Lien My Diep at the Research Department, Aker University Hospital, for help in preparation of the manuscript
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.