Latest Salvage Radiation News

Freie Universität Berlin (Wikimedia Commons)

Researchers in Germany have completed a followup study on 151 patients. The median followup time was 82 months.
They found a 55% recurrence rate in salvage radiation (SRT) patients. This confirms several other studies around the world that show in the long term, most salvage radiation patients will show at least biochemical recurrence. (In the short run, it's just the opposite) . However, the study also showed very few prostate cancer deaths during the followup period. And the study confirmed other research since 2004: pre-SRT PSA level is a critical factor in predicting the outcome of salvage radiation.  The lower your PSA at the time of salvage radiation, the better.  The takeaway? If you're considering salvage radiation, don't dally.

Lohm G, Lütcke J, Jamil B, Höcht S, Neumann K, Hinkelbein W, Wiegel T, Bottke
D. Salvage radiotherapy in patients with prostate cancer and biochemical relapse 
after radical prostatectomy : Long-term follow-up of a single-center survey.
Strahlenther Onkol. 2014 Feb 28. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 24577132.