Radiotherapy for high-risk patients after radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer: Immediate postoperative or salvage?

The use of immediate postoperative and salvage radiotherapy in high-risk patients after radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer remains controversial. Immediate postoperative radiotherapy improves biochemical and clinical progression-free survival in randomised trials. Metastasis-free survival and overall survival were seen to be improved in a recently updated randomised trial. On the basis of retrospective data only, salvage radiotherapy is effective against biochemical relapse after prostatectomy. The adjunction of androgen deprivation therapy to immediate postoperative or salvage radiotherapy is only supported by retrospective data. The results of the ongoing, prospective, randomized trials will hopefully enable accurate comparison of immediate postoperative radiotherapy with salvage radiotherapy and assessment of the value of androgen deprivation therapy. (authors)