Elective nodal radiotherapy appears to reduce relapses more effectively than stereotactic body radiotherapy in men with nodal oligorecurrent prostate cancer, according to a retrospective analysis.

However, elective nodal radiotherapy (ENRT) is also more toxic, researchers report in European Urology.

Following local therapy of prostate cancer, the most dominant sites of recurrence are lymph nodes, which can be targeted with focal stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) or more comprehensively with ENRT.

As it was unclear which treatment was better, researchers from Europe, the UK and Australia have conducted the largest study to date comparing the two.