Contribution of serum biomarkers to prognostic assessment in patients with oligometastatic prostate cancer

Abstract

Background/Aim: The aim of this study was to analyze the prognostic impact of biomarkers, such as serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), in patients with oligometastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, arbitrarily defined as a maximum of five metastatic lesions. Patients and Methods: This was a retrospective single-institution analysis. Overall 34 patients were included, all of whom received first-line docetaxel without ablative local treatment. Results: Twelve patients (35%) had elevated LDH (≥255 U/l). Their median survival was significantly shorter than that of patients with normal LDH. Due to an interaction with other biomarkers, multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed. The latter showed that serum hemoglobin was the only significant predictor of survival. Conclusion: Correct diagnosis of oligometastatic disease is not trivial, because all radiological modalities are limited by certain thresholds for detection of small metastases. Serum biomarkers may reflect the total burden of malignant disease. However, this relatively small study did not clearly demonstrate that elevation of LDH may be useful for clinical decision-making, e.g. in terms of adding local treatment for all sites of metastatic spread.