Risk stratification and early oncologic outcomes following robotic prostatectomy

Although the popularity of robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy is assured, little is known about the oncologic outcomes following the procedure.

We performed a retrospective cohort study including consecutive patients who underwent the surgery between 2003 and 2007 with at least 6 months of follow-up (n=464). Patients were stratified into low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups according to D'Amico criteria. Biochemical failure was defined as a PSA > or =0.2 ng/mL.

Of study patients, 256 (55%), 171 (37%), and 37 (8%) were classified as low-, intermediate-, and high-risk, respectively. Over a mean follow-up of 14.1 months (range, 6.0 to 55.3), 7.3% experienced biochemical failure. Biochemical disease-free survival at 30 months was 94%, 79%, and 73% among patients in the low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups, respectively, (P<0.001). Preoperative risk stratification was strongly associated with biochemical failure, with hazard ratios of 5.04 (95%: 1.52 to 16.7; P<0.001) and 7.04 (95%: 1.39 to 35.6; P < 0.001) for intermediate- and high- over low-risk groups, respectively. The ability of risk stratification to predict biochemical failure had an area under the receiver operator characteristic curve of 0.74.

Robotic prostatectomy provides excellent cancer control outcomes for clinically localized disease.