We conduct a retrospective analysis of salvage radiotherapy plus androgen deprivation therapy (SRT+ADT) for high-risk prostate cancer patients with biochemical failure after high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) as the primary treatment. A total of 38 patients, who met the criteria of biochemical failure and were consecutively treated with SRT+ADT, were enrolled. All patients received intensity modulated radiotherapy with a median dose of 70 Gy to the clinical target volume. ADT was given before, during or after the course of SRT with the duration of ≦6 months (n = 14), 6−12 months (n = 12) or >12 months (n = 12). The median follow-up was 45.9 months. A total of 10 (26.3%) patients had biochemical failure after SRT+ADT. The cumulative 5-year biochemical progression free survival (b-PFS) and overall survival (OS) rate was 73.0% and 80.3%, respectively. A nadir prostate-specific antigen (nPSA) value 0.02 ng/mL was observed to predict the b-PFS in multivariate analysis. The 5-year b-PFS was 81.6% for those with nPSA < 0.02 compared with 25.0% with nPSA ≧ 0.02. The adverse effects related to SRT+ADT were mild in most cases and only three (8%) patients experienced grade 3 urinary toxicities. For high-risk prostate cancer after HIFU as primary treatment with biochemical failure, our study confirms the feasibility of SRT+ADT with high b-PFS, OS and low toxicity.
Keywords: androgen antagonist; high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation; prostatic neoplasms; radiotherapy; treatment failure.