OBJECTIVE To evaluate the clinical outcome of radical prostatectomy (RP) in Japan, by retrospectively analysing the clinicopathological data in patients with clinical T1 -T2 prostate cancer treated by RP, as there can be prostate-specific antigen (PSA) recurrence after RP in substantially many patients, and its character can differ according to ethnic group and/or country.
PATIENTS AND METHODS We reviewed 1192 patients who had a RP from 1993 to 2002 with no neoadjuvant/adjuvant therapy and whose PSA level after RP decreased at least once to undetectable levels (< 0.2 ng/mL). PSA recurrence was defined as >= 0.20 ng/mL. The patient data were collected from the Urological Oncology Study Group, a subgroup of Japan Clinical Oncology Group.
RESULTS The patients' median (range) age was 67 (47-83) years and their PSA level before RP was 8.7 (1.0-153) ng/mL. During the median follow-up of 45.6 months, 302 of the 1192 patients (25.3%) developed PSA recurrence. The median time to recurrence was 369 (61-2128) days after RP. A log-rank test showed that five significant clinicopathological factors were associated with PSA recurrence after RP: The percentage of prostate needle-biopsy cores with cancer, the biopsy Gleason score, PSA level before RP, pathological stage, and the Gleason score of the RP specimen (P < 0.001 for all). In multivariate analyses, the percentage of positive biopsy cores, PSA level before RP, pT and the Gleason score of the RP specimen were all independent significant predictors of PSA recurrence after RP in Japanese men.
CONCLUSIONS The frequency of PSA recurrence after RP was 25.3% in Japan and the percentage of positive biopsy cores, PSA level before RP, pT and the Gleason score of the RP specimen were independent significant factors for PSA recurrence.