Oligometastatic prostate cancer is a new and emerging treatment field with only few prospective randomized studies published so far. Despite the lack of strong level I evidence, metastasis-directed therapies (MDT) are widely used in clinical practice, mainly based on retrospective and small phase 2 studies and with a large difference across centers. Pending results of ongoing prospective randomized trials, there is a clear need for more consistent treatment indications and radiotherapy practices. A European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) Guidelines Committee consisting of radiation oncologists' experts in prostate cancer was asked to answer a dedicated questionnaire, including 41 questions on the main controversial issues with regard to oligometastatic prostate cancer. The panel achieved consensus on patient selection and routine use of prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography (PSMA PET) imaging as preferred staging and restaging imaging. MDT strategies are recommended in the de novo oligometastatic, oligorecurrent and oligoprogressive disease setting for nodal, bone and visceral metastases. Radiation therapy doses, volumes and techniques were discussed and commented. These recommendations have the purpose of providing standardization and consensus to optimize the radiotherapy treatment of oligometastatic prostate cancer until mature results of randomized trials are available.
Automated atlas-based segmentation algorithms present the potential to reduce the variability in volume delineation. Several vendors offer software that are mainly used for cranial, head and neck and prostate cases. The present study will compare the contours produced by a radiation oncologist to the contours computed by different automated atlas-based segmentation algorithms for prostate bed cases, including femoral heads, bladder and rectum. Contour comparison was evaluated by different metrics such as volume ratio, Dice coefficient and Hausdorff distance. Results depended on the volume of interest and showed some discrepancies between the different software. Automatic contours could be a good starting point for the delineation of organs since efficient editing tools are provided by different vendors. It should become an important help in the next few years for organ at risk delineation.