Five-year biochemical outcome after prostate brachytherapy for hormone-naive men ≤ 62 years of age

Abstract 

To evaluate 5-year biochemical disease-free outcome for hormone naı̈ve men 62 years of age or less who underwent transperineal ultrasound-guided permanent prostate brachytherapy.

76 patients underwent transperineal ultrasound guided prostate brachytherapy using either ¹⁰³Pd or ¹²⁵I for clinical T1b–T2b N×M0 (1997 AJCC) adenocarcinoma of the prostate gland from April 1995 to October 1999. No patient was lost to follow-up, and no patient underwent pathologic lymph-node staging. 47 patients were implanted with either ¹⁰³Pd or ¹²⁵I monotherapy, and 29 patients received moderate-dose external-beam radiation therapy followed by a prostate brachytherapy boost. No patient received hormonal manipulation. The median patient age was 58 years (range, 48–62 years). The median follow-up was 37 months (range, 14–70 months). Follow-up was calculated from the day of implantation. Biochemical disease-free survival was defined by the American Society of Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology (ASTRO) consensus definition.

The actuarial 5-year biochemical disease-free survival rate was 98.7%. For patients with low-, intermediate-, and high-risk disease, 97.7%, 100%, and 100%, respectively, were free of biochemical failure. The median posttreatment prostate-specific antigen (PSA) for the entire group was 0.2 ng/mL. When stratified by risk group, the median posttreatment PSA was 0.2, 0.15, and 0.1 for patients with low-, intermediate-, and high-risk disease, respectively.

With a median follow-up of 37 months, hormone naı̈ve patients ≤ 62 years of age have a high probability of 5-year biochemical disease-free survival following permanent prostate brachytherapy with an apparent plateau on the PSA curve.

Keywords:  Prostate cancer, Brachytherapy, Biochemical outcome, Patient age