The definition of biochemical failure in patients treated with definitive radiotherapy.
OBJECTIVE
The American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) published a definition for biochemical failure following treatment of prostate cancer. Others have noted difficulties with interpreting this definition and recommended modifications to accommodate special recurrence patterns. We have compared various modifications to the original ASTRO definition on our series of 1213 patients treated with transperineal permanent prostate brachytherapy.


METHODS
The ASTRO modifications we considered adjusted for (1) early censoring of nonrecurrent patients with rising prostate-specific antigen levels (PSA), (2) cumulative rather than consecutive rises (without a decrease) as evidence of recurrence, (3) both of the above, and (4) waiting 2 years before data analysis. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to compute the effects on recurrence rate for patients treated with and without neoadjuvant hormones.


RESULTS
With the original ASTRO definition, freedom from recurrence in our series of men who did not receive neoadjuvant hormones was 83% at 4 years. All of the modifications considered had statistically insignificant effects on freedom from recurrence rates, varying from 80% to 83% at 4 years. Patients treated with neoadjuvant hormones also showed very little sensitivity to the recurrence definition employed.


CONCLUSIONS
Early censoring of equivocal patients and counting cumulative rather than consecutive rises in PSA (without a decrease) had little empiric effect on the ASTRO recurrence rates. However, we favor the addition of both these modifications to the ASTRO definition on conceptual grounds for evaluating patients following any modality (radiation or surgery), whereby a trend over multiple PSA values is used to judge failure.
Kattan
M W
MW
Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021, USA. mike@kattan.net
Fearn
P A
PA
Leibel
S
S
Potters
L
L
D001918:Brachytherapy; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D018787:Radiation Oncology / Q000592:standards; D012955:Societies, Medical; D013997:Time Factors; D017211:Treatment Failure
D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen