Automated Prostate Bed Lesion Detection: The Next Step in Salvage Radiation Therapy Dose Escalation

Abstract

While radiation therapy (RT) dose escalation improves outcomes in definitive prostate cancer RT, its role in the post-prostatectomy setting has not been established. A major obstacle has been the lack of a clearly defined target resulting in dose escalation to the entire prostate bed (PB), exposure of significant volumes of the bladder and rectum to higher doses, and increased risk of late complications. We hypothesize that there is a dominant tumor focus/foci, that when present determines outcome and that these are the cases/location(s) that would benefit from RT dose escalation.