Clinicopathological features of patients with biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy without progressive rise in serum prostate-specific antigen.
BACKGROUND
The objective of this study was to characterize clinicopathological features of patients with biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy who did not exhibit a progressive rise in serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) during the follow-up period.


METHODS
We analyzed data from 162 consecutive patients who underwent radical prostatectomy for clinically organ-confined prostate cancer without neoadjuvant hormonal therapy and were followed postoperatively for at least 1 year. The serum PSA value was measured using an ultrasensitive PSA assay system (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany), and biochemical recurrence was defined as a serum PSA of >or=0.1 ng/ml.


RESULTS
A total of 32 patients (19.8%) were diagnosed as having biochemical recurrence. Among these patients, we identified 10 (31.3%) with a serum PSA>0.1 ng/ml who had not shown PSA or clinical progression during a median follow-up of 34 months after radical prostatectomy. In these 10 patients, the median time to biochemical recurrence was 17 months, the median PSA velocity after biochemical recurrence was 0.034 ng/ml/year, and there was no patient whose serum PSA value became >0.4 ng/ml. There were no clinicopathological parameters except for PSA velocity that were significantly associated with the features of these 10 patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Because of the presence of a subset of patients with biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy who will not show a progressive increase in serum PSA value, the indication for adjuvant therapy for such patients should be cautiously determined considering several factors, such as PSA kinetics.
Miyake
Hideaki
H
Department of Urology, Hyogo Medical Center for Adults, Akashi, Japan. hideakimiyake@hotmail.com
Hara
Isao
I
Kurahashi
Toshifumi
T
Muramaki
Mototsugu
M
Yamanaka
Kazuki
K
Inoue
Taka-aki
TA
Fujisawa
Masato
M
D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D018450:Disease Progression; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D011468:Prostatectomy / Q000379:methods*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen