Incorporating Androgen Deprivation With Dose-Escalated External-Beam Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer

Abstract

The Oncology Grand Rounds series is designed to place original reports published in the Journal into clinical context. A case presentation is followed by a description of diagnostic and management challenges, a review of the relevant literature, and a summary of the authors’ suggested management approaches. The goal of this series is to help readers better understand how to apply the results of key studies, including those published in Journal of Clinical Oncology, to patients seen in their own clinical practice. A 71-year-old man was seen by his primary care physician for routine evaluation in early 2015. On digital rectal examination, his prostate was moderately enlarged, although he had no obvious areas of palpable disease. His prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level was 7.1 ng/mL. A standard ultrasound-guided biopsy of his prostate revealed a 60-mL prostate volume and a single core (out of 12) of Gleason 3 + 3 disease. He chose to undergo surveillance. Six months later, his PSA level had risen to 10.0 ng/mL; there was still no palpable disease on digital rectal examination. Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging of his prostate and pelvis revealed two suspicious intraprostatic lesions with restricted diffusion, focal and earlier enhancement with contrast than adjacent normal prostate, and hypointense features on T2-weighted imaging; these findings were highly suspicious for high-grade prostate cancer ( Fig 1 ). Magnetic resonance imaging–ultrasound fusion targeted biopsy of each lesion yielded a total of four positive biopsy cores of Gleason 4 + 3 = 7, involving 50% to 80% of each core, with perineural invasion noted. The patient’s medical history is notable for overweight (but not morbidly obese), hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, cataract surgeries, and inguinal hernia repair, but the patient is otherwise healthy. He has decided against prostatectomy and brachytherapy because of strong personal preference. In particular, he wanted to avoid anesthesia, and was concerned about the potential for greater urinary incontinence and/or urinary irritation associated with these treatments compared with external-beam radiotherapy (RT). 1 , 2