Radical prostatectomy for cT3-4 disease: an evaluation of the pathological outcomes and patterns of care for adjuvant radiation in a national cohort.

Objective: • To use the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Database to evaluate the pathological outcomes for patients with clinically staged T3-4 disease who undergo radical prostatectomy and to analyze whether these patients are receiving adjuvant radiation.

Patients And Methods: • We identified patients who were clinically staged as having T3-4N0M0 prostate cancer and underwent radical prostatectomy between 2004 and 2006. Clinical data regarding preoperative prostate-specific antigen, as well as pathological Gleason score, were also collected. • Descriptive analyses were performed regarding the pathological extent of disease for these patients. • Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify unadjusted and adjusted predictors of radiation use for those with non-organ-confined disease or positive margins.

Results: • A total of 718 patients were identified. Of these, 10.2% had organ-confined disease (8.1% with negative margins and 2.1% with positive margins). The median number of lymph nodes removed was three, with 9.9% of patients having pathologically positive lymph nodes. • The clinical accuracy of staging was found to be 81.4% for T3a, 77.4% for T3b and 70.1% for T4. Of those who had non-organ-confined disease or positive margins pathologically, 21.1% received adjuvant radiation. Logistic regression analysis revealed that those with Gleason 8-10 disease were most likely to receive adjuvant radiation.

Conclusions: • In this large series from a population-based cohort, clinical staging of T3-T4 disease was highly accurate in predicting pathological extent, with only 10.2% of patients found to have pathological T2 disease. • Most patients with confirmed pathological T3-T4 disease did not receive adjuvant radiation.