What Is Oligometastatic Prostate Cancer?

Abstract

Advanced prostate cancer patients can present with both widely metastatic or oligometastatic disease. Accumulating clinical evidence suggests that patients with oligometastatic disease have improved clinical responses from metastasis-directed therapy. This suggests that tumours that give rise to the oligometastatic state are distinct biologically and genetically from those that induce widely metastatic lesions. Detailed genomic analysis of the oligometastatic state will identify the molecular events that distinguish localised from metastatic disease, defining the molecular signatures of curability. The GAP6 consortium is well poised to address this question. PATIENT SUMMARY: In this report, we have reviewed the evidence that prostate cancer patients with only a small number of distant tumour deposits have cancers that are driven by genetic and biological changes, which are distinct from those tumours that readily spread to many distant sites. So far, the evidence is not clear cut; however, in-depth studies to answer this question are underway.

Keywords: Cancer genomics; Oligometastasis; Prostate cancer.