title: Radiation for prostate cancer: use of biochemical failure as an endpoint following radiotherapy.
abstract: The introduction of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as a reliable tumor marker for prostate cancer brought significant changes in endpoints after therapy and in outcome reporting. Over the last 15 years we have collected follow-up information in this new era and struggled with failure definitions using this new tool. Parameters for failure after radiation were especially controversial due to the fact that, unlike surgery, a variable amount of normal prostate function and PSA production remained. In 1996, the ASTRO Consensus Conference established a PSA failure definition based on the available information at the time. It was commonly used for outcome reporting subsequently although criticisms have been voiced and alternate definitions proposed. A recently assembled multi-institutional database was used both for long-term outcome reporting with external beam radiation and to test various other failure definitions. A summary of these results and the associated issues are presented here.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Box 97, TX 77030, Houston, USA. dakuban@mdanderson.org
authors.forename: Deborah A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Kuban
authors.forename: Howard D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Thames
authors.forename: Larry B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Levy
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D017211:Treatment Failure
chemical_list: D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen