Prostate-specific antigen failure within 2 years of radical prostatectomy predicts overall survival.

Objective: This study attempts to determine whether prostate-specific antigen (PSA) failure following radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) affects patients' long-term overall survival.

Methods: This study examined 155 men diagnosed as clinical stages T1b-T3a who received RRP as primary therapy. To evaluate whether PSA failure following RRP affects overall survival, the patients were grouped into those who experienced PSA failure within 2 years and those who did not. Clinical failure-free survival, prostate cancer-specific survival and overall survival were used as endpoints. Comparisons of survival curves were performed using the log-rank test. Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the variable most predictive of PSA failure within 2 years of surgery.

Results: At 10 years, the PSA failure-free survival rate, clinical failure-free survival rate, prostate cancer specific survival rate and overall survival rate of the 155 patients were 40.1%, 83.1%, 94.9% and 84.2%, respectively. The overall survival curve for patients with PSA failure within 2 years of surgery was significantly lower than for patients with no PSA failure within 2 years of surgery (P = 0.042). The multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that PSA greater than 20 ng/mL and poor differentiation of the tumor were significant independent predictors of PSA failure within 2 years of surgery.

Conclusion: These results imply that prospective studies should be conducted to detect patients at high risk for PSA recurrence in whom metastasis may occur early and to investigate postoperative treatments for these high-risk patients to improve overall survival.