Characteristics of Anteriorly Located Prostate Cancer and the Usefulness of Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Diagnosis
Materials and Methods: We analyzed the records of 728 consecutive patients treated with radical prostatectomy. Patients were categorized with anterior or prostate cancer or tumors involving the anterior and posterior prostate according to the dominant tumor location on whole mount section.
Results: The anterior and posterior prostate cancer groups and the group with cancer at both locations represented 31.0%, 46.7% and 22.3% of the total number of patients, respectively. Anterior prostate cancer was less commonly palpable (p <0.001) and needed more frequent repeat biopsy (p ¼ 0.012) than posterior prostate cancer. Moreover, the anterior group had fewer positive cores than the posterior group (p <0.001) despite comparable tumor volumes. Gleason score upgrading was more frequently observed in anterior than in posterior prostate cancer (p ¼ 0.003). However, final pathological features did not significantly differ. Only the seminal vesicle involvement rate was lower in anterior than in posterior prostate cancer (p <0.001). Estimated 5-year biochemical recurrencefree survival in patients with anterior prostate cancer was 87.5%, significantly higher than in patients with posterior prostate cancer (77.4%, p ¼ 0.001) and patients with anterior plus posterior involvement (74.4%, p <0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that anterior location was an independent prognostic factor for biochemical recurrence (HR 0.403) along with other well-known prognostic factors. To detect anterior prostate tumors the sensitivity and specificity of magnetic resonance imaging were 78.1% and 58.2%, respectively.
Conclusions: Anterior prostate cancer had pathological features and favorable oncologic outcomes comparable to those of posterior prostate cancer but also more frequent Gleason score upgrading. Magnetic resonance imaging had
moderate diagnostic performance for detecting lesions in the anterior prostate.
Authors: Myong Kim, Seung-Kwon Choi, Myungchan Park, Myungsun Shim, Cheryn Song, In Gab Jeong, Jun Hyuk Hong, Choung-Soo Kim and Hanjong Ahn*
From the Department of Urology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Go "Beyond the Abstract" - Read an article written by the authors for UroToday.com