Long-term oncological and continence outcomes after laparoscopic radical prostatectomy: a single-centre experience

Study Type--Therapy (case series) Level of Evidence 4. What's known on the subject? and What does the study add? Over the past decade, minimally invasive laparoscopic radical prostatectomy and more recently robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy have been introduced and have proven equally effective compared with open surgery in terms of mid-term cancer control and complication rates. Because long-term data is lacking, open prostatectomy is still considered the 'gold standard' by some authors, who argue that minimally invasive approaches have to measure up to the excellent long-term results of open surgery. This study represents one of the largest series (1845 patients) of minimally invasive radical prostatectomy with extended follow-up (11.3 years) and detailed data on oncological outcome and postoperative incontinence. It therefore supplies previously lacking information on these details for minimally invasive prostate surgery and provides important information for patient counselling.

• To investigate biochemical recurrence (BCR) rates and data on postoperative incontinence in a large laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (LRP) cohort with extended follow-up.

• BCR and independent predictors of BCR were identified using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analysis of 1845 patients who underwent LRP from 1999 to 2007. • Urinary incontinence was evaluated by pads per day and stratified as follows: 0-1 pad: no incontinence; 2-3 pads: mild incontinence; and ≥ 3 pads: severe incontinence.

• Organ-confined disease, extraprostatic extension, seminal vesicle invasion and lymph node metastasis were present in 71.3%, 20.5%, 6.7% and 3.2% of patients, respectively. The positive surgical margin rate was 29.2%. • Postoperatively, 74.9% of the patients were continent, while 9.2% had mild and 15.9% severe incontinence. • The mean follow-up was 5 years with a maximum follow-up of 11.3 years. • There were 51 overall deaths and six deaths from prostate cancer. The 5-year, 8-year and 10-year BCR-free survival rates were 83.9%, 78.6% and 75.6%, respectively. • On univariate analyses preoperative D'Amico risk classification, pathological tumour stage, postoperative Gleason sum and surgical margin status were predictors of BCR (P < 0.001). • On multivariable analysis, D'Amico classification, Gleason sum (P < 0.001), postoperative tumour stage (P < 0.001), nodal status (P < 0.001) and surgical margin status (P = 0.002) were independent predictors of BCR.

• LRP offers excellent long-term functional and oncological results with a low incidence of BCR for patients with localized disease. • These results could be used for patient counselling before robot-assisted laparascopic prostatectomy (RALP) until long-term follow-up data for RALP is available.