[Prognosis of the patients with prostate cancer clinically confined within the pelvis]

Between 1975 and 1989, 90 patients with prostate cancer in clinical stage A2 to C underwent pelvic lymphadenectomy. Median follow-up period was 38 months. Almost all of the patients with pN0-1 (49) and 4 of pN2 were treated by curative treatment, such as radical prostatectomy (7) or radiation therapy (45). The remaining pN2 (26), pN3 (4) and pM1 LYM (6) received endocrine therapy. Pelvic lymph node metastasis were noticed in 50 cases (56%). Rates of positive node and degree of nodal extension were related to clinical stage and histological grade. Disease-free survival of the patients with pN0-1 was better than that of the patients with more than pN2. There was no difference in disease-free survival between the patients with pN0 and pN1. We concluded that the patients with pN0 and pN1 were the candidates for curative therapy and recommend that the patients with more than pN2 be treated with endocrine therapy.