[Treatment for locally advanced prostate cancer: value of surgery]

Surgical therapy is not only a therapeutic method but also an important procedure to provide useful information in determining a postoperative treatment strategy. Compared with postoperative cancer staging based on specimens obtained during surgery, more than 30% of cancers were inaccurately staged preoperatively, even when a current advanced diagnostic imaging technique was used. Compared with postoperative histological 30-40% of cancer staging were inaccurately staged based on a preoperative biopsy. These misstaging cases pose a significantly important problem. Approximately 15% and 30% of clinical stage C prostate cancers have been rated as pT2 and pN(+), respectively. Patients with pT3 prostate cancer who underwent radical prostatectomy had 5-year and 10-year overall survival rates of 82% and 67%, respectively, which were comparable to those in patients with pT2 prostate cancer (82% and 67%, respectively). However, patients with prostate cancer rated as pT4 and pN(+) had very poor outcomes with 5-year overall survival rates of 42.4% and 32.6%, respectively. Therefore, even in patients with stage C prostate cancer, surgical therapy should be recommended if no infiltration of adjacent tissue has been noted and the operation is applicable; and an optimal postoperative therapeutic strategy should be selected based on the accurate pathological staging and histological grading using postoperative pathological specimens. Such approaches will prevent unnecessary hormone therapy in patients with pT2 prostate cancer and prevent missing optimal timing for radical cure, as well as allowing appropriate therapy to be selected for patients with pT4 and pN(+) prostate cancer, for whom prognosis may be poor.