Radical prostatectomy for high-grade prostate cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Patients with high-grade clinically localized disease often have disease beyond the prostate and, if so, are unlikely to benefit from radical prostatectomy in the long-term. The objective of this study was to assess whether use of other known prognostic factors could be helpful in defining which men with Gleason 8 to 10 prostate cancer are most likely to benefit from surgical management.


METHODS
A retrospective analysis was performed on men with biopsy Gleason 8 to 10 prostate cancer who underwent radical prostatectomy at two major university centers. No patients received hormonal therapy as part of initial treatment or adjuvant radiation therapy. Surgery was performed using a retropubic approach, and lymph node dissection was performed in all patients. Risk groups were defined based on prostate-specific antigen (PSA) value and percent positive biopsy cores (%PBC). A Cox proportional hazards analysis was performed to assess for differences in pretreatment prognostic factors. Kaplan-Meier curves were generated for each group, and then comparisons between groups were performed using log-rank analysis to assess for differences in 5-year actuarial freedom from biochemical failure.


RESULTS
Radical prostatectomy was performed on 196 patients between 1987 and 2002, of whom 168 had sufficient data for analysis. Median follow-up was 18 months (range, 1 to 130 months), with 31 patients at risk for more than 5 years. Patients with a PSA value of less than 10 ng/mL and %PBC of less than 50% had a 5-year actuarial biochemical control rate of 67% versus 23% for all other patients (P = 0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
PSA value and %PBC are useful in selecting patients with high-grade prostate cancer most likely to benefit by radical prostatectomy.
Hurwitz
Mark D
MD
Harvard Medical School, and Department of Radiation Oncology, Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. mhurwitz@lroc.harvard.edu
Schultz
Delray
D
Richie
Jerome P
JP
Wein
Alan J
AJ
Whittington
Richard
R
Malkowicz
S Bruce
SB
D'Amico
Anthony V
AV
D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011468:Prostatectomy / Q000379:methods; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D012189:Retrospective Studies