The ideal treatment for men with high-risk prostate cancer is controversial, although most physicians agree that a multimodal approach, including radiation and hormone therapy with or without surgery, offers the best chance of cancer control.
Minimally-invasive radical prostatectomy has emerged as a treatment option for clinically localized cancer; however, critics argue that the open approach may afford advantages of tactile feedback and a better lymph node dissection. The present study demonstrates that open and minimally-invasive radical prostatectomy offer equivalent short-term outcomes for men with high-risk prostate cancer at a highly experienced centre.
OBJECTIVES: To analyze pathological and short-term oncological outcomes in men undergoing open and minimally-invasive radical prostatectomy (MIRP) for high-risk prostate cancer (HRPC; prostate-specific antigen level [PSA] >20 ng/mL, ≥ cT2c, Gleason score 8-10) in a contemporaneous series.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: In total, 913 patients with HRPC were identified in the Johns Hopkins Radical Prostatectomy Database subsequent to the inception of MIRP at this institution (2002-2011) Of these, 743 (81.4%) underwent open radical retropubic prostatectomy (ORRP), 105 (11.5%) underwent robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALRP) and 65 (7.1%) underwent laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (LRP) for HRPC. Appropriate comparative tests were used to evaluate patient and prostate cancer characteristics. Proportional hazards regression models were used to predict biochemical recurrence.
RESULTS: Age, race, body mass index, preoperative PSA level, clinical stage, number of positive cores and Gleason score at final pathology were similar between ORRP and MIRP. On average, men undergoing MIRP had smaller prostates and more organ-confined (pT2) disease (P = 0.02). The number of surgeons and surgeon experience were greatest for the ORRP cohort. Overall surgical margin rate was 29.4%, 34.3% and 27.7% (P = 0.52) and 1.9%, 2.9% and 6.2% (P = 0.39) for pT2 disease in men undergoing ORRP, RALRP and LRP, respectively. Biochemical recurrence-free survival among ORRP, RALRP and LRP was 56.3%, 67.8% and 41.1%, respectively, at 3 years (P = 0.6) and the approach employed did not predict biochemical recurrence in regression models.
CONCLUSIONS: At an experienced centre, MIRP is comparable to open radical prostatectomy for HRPC with respect to surgical margin status and biochemical recurrence.
Written by:
Pierorazio PM, Mullins JK, Eifler JB, Voth K, Hyams ES, Han M, Pavlovich CP, Bivalacqua TJ, Partin AW, Allaf ME, Schaeffer EM. Are you the author?
James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Reference: BJU Int. 2013 Jan 28. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1111/j.1464-410X.2012.11757.x
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 23356390
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