Focal therapy for primary and salvage prostate cancer treatment: A narrative review Review


Authors: Tracey, A. T.; Nogueira, L. M.; Alvim, R. G.; Coleman, J. A.; Murray, K. S.
Review Title: Focal therapy for primary and salvage prostate cancer treatment: A narrative review
Abstract: Despite innovations in surgical technology and advancements in radiation therapy, radical treatments for clinically localized prostate cancer are associated with significant patient morbidity, including both urinary and sexual dysfunction. This has created a vital need for therapies and management strategies that provide an acceptable degree of oncologic efficacy while mitigating these undesirable side effects. Successful developments in screening approaches and advances in prostate imaging have allowed clinicians to identify, localize, and more precisely target early cancers. This has afforded urologists with an important opportunity to develop and employ focal ablation techniques that selectively destroy tumors while preserving the remainder of the gland, thus avoiding detrimental treatment effects to surrounding sensitive structures. A lack of high-level evidence supporting such an approach had previously hindered widespread adoption of focal treatments, but there are now numerous published clinical trials which have sought to establish benchmarks for safety and efficacy. As the clinical evidence supporting a potential role in prostate cancer treatment begins to accumulate, there has been a growing acceptance of focal therapy in the urologic oncology community. In this narrative review article, we describe the techniques, advantages, and side effect profiles of the most commonly utilized focal ablative techniques and analyze published clinical trial data supporting their evolving role in the prostate cancer treatment paradigm. © Translational Andrology and Urology. All rights reserved.
Keywords: salvage therapy; prostate cancer; focal therapy; primary therapy
Journal Title: Translational Andrology and Urology
Volume: 10
Issue: 7
ISSN: 2223-4683
Publisher: AME Publishing Company  
Date Published: 2021-07-01
Start Page: 3144
End Page: 3154
Language: English
DOI: 10.21037/tau-20-1212
PROVIDER: scopus
PMCID: PMC8350247
PUBMED: 34430417
DOI/URL:
Notes: Review -- Export Date: 1 September 2021 -- Source: Scopus
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  1. Jonathan Coleman
    341 Coleman
  2. Ricardo Goncalves Alvim
    25 Alvim
  3. Andrew Thomas Tracey
    13 Tracey