Influence of modern diagnostic methods on the treatment of nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer

Abstract

Until 2018, patients with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (nmCRPC/M0CRPC) did not have agenerally acknowledged standard of care therapy. As aresult, these patients were often managed in anonstandardized individual fashion and comparative analyses were lacking. In the current narrative review, we give an overview on the respective entities of nmCRPC and summarize novel treatment options that arose from the publication of the results of the SPARTAN and PROSPER trials and their subanalyses. We critically address the role that novel imaging modalities, namely 68Ga-PSMA-PET/CT (68Ga prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography/computed tomography) will play in the diagnosis of nmCRPC and raise the question whether incidence rates of true nmCRPC will significantly decline in the nearer future.