Active surveillance (AS) represents a well-recognized management option for many patients with low- and very low-risk prostate cancer (PCa). AS aims to reduce overtreatment whilst ensuring curative treatment for those in whom it is needed, without losing the window of curability.
While long-term series have confirmed the safety of AS in carefully selected patients, this has resulted in new clinical questions. Can the inclusion criteria be expanded? Is there a role for biomarkers and multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging at diagnosis or during AS? What is the optimal follow-up schedule as well as the most meaningful trigger for definitive treatment? These questions, together with increasingly adopted heterogeneous protocols in AS, have prompted the European Association of Urology to produce a position paper corroborated by a summary of the scientific background on AS.
Active surveillance (AS) is becoming a widely adopted strategy for patients affected by low-risk prostate cancer. While a formal systematic review on the topic will soon be available, the European Association of Urology has produced specific statements for different open questions on AS.
European urology. 2018 Jun 22 [Epub]
Alberto Briganti, Nicola Fossati, James W F Catto, Philip Cornford, Francesco Montorsi, Nicolas Mottet, Manfred Wirth, Hendrik Van Poppel
Division of Oncology, Unit of Urology, URI, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, Italy. Electronic address: ., Division of Oncology, Unit of Urology, URI, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, Italy., Academic Urology Unit, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK., Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Hospitals NHS Trust, Liverpool, UK., Department of Urology, University Hospital, St. Etienne, France., Department of Urology, Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus, Technical University of Dresden, Dresden, Germany., Department of Urology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.