Unexpected tumor response to palliative pelvic radiotherapy in mismatch repair-deficient advanced prostate cancer: a case report

BACKGROUND: Mismatch-repair-deficiency resulting in microsatellite instability (MSI) may confer increased radiosensitivity in locally advanced/metastatic tumors and thus radiotherapy (RT) potentially might have a changing role in treating this subset of patients, alone or in combination with checkpoint inhibitors. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a 76 year-old Italian male patient presenting with locally advanced undifferentiated prostate cancer (LAPC), infiltrating bladder and rectum. Molecular analysis revealed high-MSI with an altered expression of MSH2 and MSH6 at immunohistochemistry. Two months after 6 chemotherapy cycles with Docetaxel associated to an LHRH analogue, a computed tomography scan showed stable disease. After palliative RT (30 Gy/10 fractions) directed to the tumor mass with a 3D-conformal setup, a follow-up computed tomography scan at 8 weeks revealed an impressive response that remained stable at computed tomography after 9 months, with sustained biochemical response. To our knowledge, this is the first case of such a sustained response to low dose RT alone in high-MSI LAPC. CONCLUSIONS: Routine evaluation of MSI in patients with locally problematic advanced tumors might change treatment strategy and treatment aim in this setting, from a purely palliative approach to a quasi-curative paradigm.