Evaluation and management of prostate-specific antigen recurrence after radical prostatectomy for localized prostate cancer

A radical prostatectomy has been established as one of the standard management options for localized prostate cancer. However, a substantial proportion of patients who undergo a radical prostatectomy develop prostate-specific antigen (PSA) recurrence which is commonly defined as a PSA cut-off point value of 0.2 ng/ml. Although the management of PSA recurrence after radical prostatectomy may depend on the site of recurrence, it is quite difficult to identify the recurrent lesion accurately based on the currently available imaging technology. Patients who have surgical margin involvement or a Gleason score <= 7 based on the radical prostatectomy specimens, who do not have nodal or seminal vesicle involvement, and who develop a PSA recurrence > 1-2 years after surgery with a doubling time of > 1 year, and whose pre-treatment PSA is < 1.0-1.5 ng/ml are considered to benefit from local treatment with at least 64 Gy of salvage radiotherapy. Patients with different characteristics are considered to have distant metastases or both local lesions and distant metastases, and thus may be candidates for hormonal manipulation rather than radiotherapy. Since local recurrent lesions are considered to be quite small at the early stage of PSA recurrence, hormonal manipulation may be sufficient to prevent disease progression instead of radiotherapy. However, the optimal type and timing of hormonal manipulation remain to be elucidated. As a result, no consensus regarding the treatment for PSA recurrence after radical prostatectomy has yet been reached.