Background/aim
Prostate-specific-membrane-antigen/positron emission tomography (PSMA-PET) detects with high accuracy disease-recurrence, leading to changes in the management of biochemically-recurrent (BCR) prostate cancer (PCa). However, data regarding the oncological outcomes of patients who performed PSMA-PET are needed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of clinically relevant events during follow-up in patients who performed PSMA-PET for BCR after radical treatment.
Materials and methods
This analysis included consecutive, hormone-sensitive, hormone-free, recurrent PCa patients (HSPC) enrolled through a prospective study. All patients were eligible for salvage therapy, having at least 24 months of follow-up after PSMA-PET. The primary endpoint was the Event-Free Survival (EFS), defined as the time between the PSMA-PET and the date of event/last follow-up. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to estimate the EFS curves. EFS was also investigated by Cox proportional hazards regression. Events were defined as death, radiological progression, or PSA recurrence after therapy.
Results
One-hundred and seventy-six (n = 176) patients were analyzed (median PSA 0.62 [IQR: 0.43–1.00] ng/mL; median follow-up of 35.4 [IQR: 26.5–40.3] months). The EFS was 78.8% at 1 year, 65.2% (2 years), and 52.2% (3 years). Patients experiencing events during study follow-up had a significantly higher median PSA (0.81 [IQR: 0.53–1.28] vs 0.51 [IQR: 0.36–0.80] ng/mL) and a lower PSA doubling time (PSAdt) (5.4 [IQR: 3.7–11.6] vs 12.7 [IQR: 6.6–24.3] months) (p < 0.001) compared to event-free patients. The Kaplan–Meier curves showed that PSA > 0.5 ng/mL, PSAdt ≤ 6 months, and a positive PSMA-PET result were associated with a higher event rate (p < 0.01). No significant differences of event rates were observed in patients who received changes in therapy management after PSMA-PET vs. patients who did not receive therapy changes. Finally, PSA > 0.5 ng/mL and PSAdt ≤ 6 months were statistically significant event-predictors in multivariate model (p < 0.001).
Conclusion
Low PSA and long PSAdt were significant predictors of longer EFS. A lower incidence of events was observed in patients having negative PSMA-PET, since longer EFS was significantly more probable in case of a negative scan.
Background:The COVID-19 pandemic had a catastrophic impact on healthcare. Keeping an optimal cancer care routine has been challenging. For cervical cancer (CC) patients external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and brachytherapy (BT) are key elements for radical treatment. Oncological treatment delays have represented a major issue during the pandemic. Overall treatment time (OTT) is a wellknown prognostic factor for CC. Thus, we decided to evaluate radiotherapy timing and modalities, and OTT trends for locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC) patients treated at our center during the Pandemic. Methods: We retrospectively collected and analyzed data of patients treated for LACC at our Center, (
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.