RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Northern African (NAf) men show a high incidence of advanced prostate cancer (PCa) at diagnosis. Several studies suggested the existence of ethnic differences in the PCa aggressiveness and this has led to some concerns related to the inclusion of some ethnic groups into active surveillance protocols. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate pathological outcomes and aggressiveness of low risk PCa treated by radical prostatectomy in a NAf ethnic group. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Data of 147 NAfs, who underwent radical prostatectomy for low risk PCa diagnosed via a 12-core biopsy in 2 academic centers between 2011 and 2015, were reviewed retrospectively to assess rates of worse pathological outcomes defined as: Gleason score upgrade to at least 3+4, upstage to pT3a or higher or pN1, and positive surgical margins. RESULTS: Overall significant upstage and/or upgrade occurred in 20.2% and positive surgical margins occured in18.3%. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, independent variables that predicted for upstage and/or upgrade or positive surgical margins in the entire cohort were: NCCN risk group (low risk>very low risk), advanced age>60 years, PSA>6ng/ml, PSA density≥0.15, more than 2 positive cores in biopsy, more than 50% cancer involvement in positive cores, clinical stage (T2a>T1c) and UCSF-CAPRA-S score>3. CONCLUSIONS: Our study found that, at least pathologically, NAf men do not have more aggressive disease than Caucasians and African Americans in both low and very low risk PCa. Thus, we think that active surveillance is a suitable approach for selected patients since there is no definitive data that show a more aggressive natural history of PCa in NAf men.