Looking for a way improve biochemical failure rates in prostate cancer?

Slow down. For years we've known dose escalation equals disease-free survival escalation. But is it time to get our hands dirty? The ASCENDE-RT trial published in this month’s Red Journal reports that men randomized to a low-dose rate brachytherapy boost had half the rates of biochemical failure than their external beam boost companions—21% less at 9 years to be exact—when used concurrent and sequential to 8 months of ADT. But don't throw on your scrubs just yet. There were no differences in overall survival (shocking, we know), and a companion study shows these men have triple the rates of GU toxicity at 5 years.