Influence of focal and diffuse extraprostatic extension and positive surgical margins on biochemical progression following radical prostatectomy.

Purpose: The amount of extraprostatic extension and positive surgical margin correlates in most studies with biochemical recurrence following radical prostatectomy. We studied the influence of focal and diffuse extraprostatic extension and positive surgical margins on biochemical progression using a simple method for quantification.

Materials And Methods: A total of 360 prostates were step-sectioned and totally processed from 175 patients with stage T1c and 185 patients with clinical stage T2 submitted to radical retropubic prostatectomy.

Should pathologists continue to use the current pT2 substaging system for reporting of radical prostatectomy specimens?

Objectives: Pathologic staging tries to maintain symmetry with clinical staging, allowing a direct comparison of both. However, in contrast to clinical substaging of T2 prostate cancers, is controversial whether pathologic T2 substaging conveys prognostic information. The aim of our study is to analyze the clinicopathologic findings and the prognostic information comparing the clinical with the pathological T2 substaging of patients submitted to radical prostatectomy.