Biopsy Perineural Invasion in Prostate Cancer Patients Who Are Candidates for Active Surveillance by Strict and Expanded Criteria.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association of biopsy perineural invasion (PNI) with adverse pathologic findings on radical prostatectomy in patients who would have been candidates for active surveillance (AS). METHODS: Using a prospectively populated database of 3084 men who underwent open radical prostatectomy, candidates for AS by strict (Johns Hopkins) and expanded (University of Toronto) criteria were identified. The presence of adverse pathologic features at radical prostatectomy was compared between those men with and without biopsy PNI. RESULTS: Of 596 men who met strict criteria for AS, 16 (3%) had biopsy PNI. In the strict AS cohort, there were no differences in adverse pathologic features at radical prostatectomy between those with and without PNI. Of 1197 men who were candidates for AS by expanded criteria, 102 (9%) had biopsy PNI. Men with biopsy PNI in the expanded AS cohort were more likely to have extraprostatic extension (P < .001) and pathologic upgrading (P = .01) at prostatectomy. In addition, those with PNI had larger dominant nodules (P < .001), and cancer comprised a greater percentage of their prostate glands (P < .001). There was no difference in the proportion with a positive margin between the 2 groups (P = .77). CONCLUSION: Biopsy PNI was rare in patients who met strict criteria for AS. Among those men who met expanded criteria, PNI was associated with adverse pathologic findings upon prostatectomy. The presence of biopsy PNI may have a role in further risk stratifying patients who meet expanded criteria for AS.

Prognostic implications of immediate PSA response to early salvage radiotherapy.

INTRODUCTION: Up to 25% of men with prostate cancer who undergo radical prostatectomy will recur. In this setting, salvage radiotherapy may cure patients with local recurrence, but is unable to cure those with occult metastatic disease. The objective of this study is to examine how prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response to radiotherapy predicts subsequent disease progression and survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using a prospectively populated database of 3089 men who underwent open radical prostatectomy, 212 patients (7%) were identified who received early salvage radiotherapy for biochemical recurrence. The main outcome was time to disease progression after salvage radiotherapy. Patients were stratified by PSA response after radiotherapy: 1) PSA < 0.1 ng/mL, 2) persistently detectable PSA, and 3) rising PSA. RESULTS: Patients received salvage radiotherapy at a median PSA of 0.20 ng/mL (IQR 0.10-0.30 ng/mL). At a median follow up of 47.3 months, a total of 52 (25%) patients experienced disease progression. On multivariable analysis, both persistent PSA (HR 5.12; 95% CI 1.98-13.23) and rising PSA (HR 16.55; 95% CI 6.61-41.48) were associated with increased risk of disease progression compared to those with PSA < 0.1 ng/mL after adjusting for pre-radiotherapy PSA, Gleason score, margin status, stage, and time to radiotherapy. Only rising PSA was associated with an increased risk of cancer-specific and all-cause mortality. CONCLUSIONS: PSA response is associated with the risk of disease progression following salvage radiotherapy. This information can be used to counsel patients on the potential need for additional therapy and identify those at greatest risk for progression and cancer-related mortality.

Preoperative Statin Use at the Time of Radical Prostatectomy Is Not Associated With Biochemical Recurrence or Pathologic Upgrading.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the association of statin use with oncological outcomes and risk of pathologic upgrading following radical prostatectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using a prospectively populated database of 3042 men who underwent open radical prostatectomy, patients were grouped according to reported statin use at the time of surgery. The primary outcome was time to biochemical recurrence. The secondary outcome was risk of pathologic upgrading among a subset of 1256 patients with Gleason pattern 3 + 3 = 6 on biopsy. A multivariable Cox model was used to assess risk of biochemical recurrence, and multivariable logistic regression was used to assess risk of pathologic upgrading. RESULTS: Eight hundred twenty-four men (27%) reported statin use at the time of radical prostatectomy. Statin users were older and had higher body mass index, higher Charlson Comorbidity Index, and lower pretreatment prostate-specific antigen values than statin nonusers. Over a median follow-up of 70 months (interquartile range: 36-107), a total of 455 men (15%) experienced biochemical recurrence. Statin use was not associated with biochemical recurrence (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.06, 95% confidence interval: 0.86-1.31). Of those men with biopsy Gleason 3 + 3 = 6 disease, 647 (52%) were upgraded to higher grade disease following radical prostatectomy; however, statin use was not associated with pathologic upgrading (adjusted odds ratio: 0.78, 95% confidence interval: 0.58-1.04). CONCLUSION: Preoperative statin use at the time of radical prostatectomy was not associated with biochemical recurrence or risk of pathologic upgrading in this cohort. These data add to the existing body of literature suggesting that statin use is not associated with more favorable clinical outcomes following radical prostatectomy.

Prostate biopsy perineural invasion is not independently associated with positive surgical margins following radical retropubic prostatectomy.

PURPOSE: Perineural invasion (PNI) in prostate cancer has been associated with poor prognosis. We sought to determine whether biopsy and radical prostatectomy (RP) PNI are associated with adverse outcomes. A secondary objective was to determine whether prostate biopsy PNI should alter surgical technique. METHODS: Patients were categorized by PNI on biopsy and RP specimens. Associations between PNI, clinicopathologic characteristics, and biochemical recurrence (BCR) rates were assessed. RESULTS: A total of 2,500 patients undergoing open RP by a single-surgeon from 1999 to 2011 were analyzed. In unadjusted univariate analyses, biopsy PNI was significantly associated with Gleason score, clinical stage, positive surgical margins, extraprostatic extension (EPE), seminal vesicle invasion (SVI), positive lymph nodes, and BCR (p < 0.001). On multivariate analysis, EPE (p < 0.001), and SVI (p = 0.022) remained associated with biopsy PNI. Biopsy PNI was not associated with positive margins at RP (OR 1.3, 95 % CI 0.92-1.9). The presence of PNI in the final RP specimen conferred a greater than 4 times increased odds of positive margin (OR 4.6, 95 % CI 2.30-9.22; p < 0.0001). Men with PNI on biopsy were 1.5 times more likely to experience BCR (OR 1.5, 1.06-2.01). PNI on biopsy or RP specimens was not associated with overall survival. CONCLUSIONS: In men undergoing open RP for clinically localized prostate adenocarcinoma, biopsy PNI is associated with an increased risk of BCR. PNI on prostate biopsy was not associated with positive surgical margins after adjusting for related co-variables. The presence of PNI on prostate biopsy should not preclude utilization of a nerve-sparing approach.

Obesity is not associated with aggressive pathologic features or biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether obesity is associated with adverse pathologic characteristics, positive surgical margins, greater biochemical recurrence rates, and interval to death after primary treatment with radical prostatectomy (RP). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A 12-year, retrospective, single-institution analysis of patients treated with RP was performed. Patients were categorized by their body mass index (BMI) as normal weight (n = 533), overweight (n = 1342), obese (n = 603), and morbidly obese (n = 22). The associations among the BMI, clinicopathologic characteristics, and biochemical recurrence rates were assessed. RESULTS: After adjusting for multiple clinical preoperative characteristics, the BMI category was not associated with positive surgical margins (P = .66), organ-confined disease (P = .10), Gleason score (P = .22), extracapsular extension (P = .09), seminal vesicle invasion (P = .15), percentage of cancer in the prostate gland (P = .67), largest tumor nodule (P = .13), or lymph node metastasis (P = .39). Gleason score 4+3 (P <.001), Gleason score 9 and 10 (P <.001), and an increasing prostate-specific antigen level (P <.001) were associated with biochemical recurrence. At a mean overall follow-up of 55.6 months, 276 patients (11.0%) had developed biochemical recurrence (normal weight 11.3%, overweight 10.5%, obese 12.3%, and morbid obesity 4.5%). After multivariate adjustment for age, ethnicity, risk group, clinical stage, Gleason score, preoperative prostate-specific antigen level, and year of surgery, no association was found between the BMI and biochemical recurrence (P = .87). CONCLUSION: In men undergoing RP for clinically localized prostate adenocarcinoma, obesity was not associated with adverse pathologic features, positive surgical margins, or biochemical recurrence. These data provide evidence that obese men undergoing RP are not more likely to have aggressive prostate cancer.

Intraoperative cell salvage in radical prostatectomy does not appear to increase long-term biochemical recurrence, metastases, or mortality.

BACKGROUND: Blood management strategies help to conserve allogeneic red blood cells, a finite resource. Intraoperative cell salvage (ICS) is an effective method of allogeneic avoidance. However, concerns persist about the safety of ICS in surgical oncology cases, including radical prostatectomy (RP). Previous findings do not support these concerns. We hypothesized that ICS would not increase rates of long-term prostate cancer recurrence characterized by biochemical failure, disease dissemination, or mortality. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Consecutive patients undergoing RP by a single urologist over two 3-month periods 1 year apart were analyzed retrospectively. Patients in the first period had preoperative autologous donation (PAD) but not ICS (PAD group), whereas those in the second period had ICS only (ICS group). Variables assessed included patient demographics, prostate-specific antigen levels at surgery and end of follow-up, clinical stage, operative time, surgical margin status, pathologic stage and grade, Gleason score sum, length of hospital stay, biochemical recurrence, metastases, and mortality. RESULTS: A total of 116 consecutive patients were analyzed. Of these, 32 patients in the PAD group and 42 patients in the ICS group had follow-up of at least 4.75 years. There was a significantly higher rate of biochemical failure (34.4% vs. 9.5%; p = 0.02) and metastases (12.5% vs. 0%; p = 0.03) in the PAD group versus the ICS group; there was no significant difference in mortality (9.4% vs. 0%; p = 0.08). CONCLUSION: ICS appears to be a safe and effective method of allogeneic blood conservation in patients undergoing RP. The findings suggest that there is no increased risk of biochemical failure, disease dissemination, or mortality at 5 years post-RP as a result of ICS use.