[Neoadjuvant hormonal therapy versus surgery alone for radical prostatectomy in high-risk prostate cancer patients]

We examined the effect of neoadjuvant hormonal therapy (NHT) on biochemical failure. We retrospectively analyzed 146 high-risk prostate cancer patients (clinically (c), T1c-3N0M0) who underwent radical prostatectomy between June 2002 and March 2008. Thirty-eight patients were treated with NHT for ≥2 months (NHT group), and 108, with surgery alone (SA group). The study population comprised 89 cT1c-2N0M0 patients and 57 cT3N0M0 patients, and pathologically (p), 66 pT0-2N0M0 patients and 76 pT3N0M0 patients. Downstaging was noted in 36.4 and 0% of cT1c-2N0M0 patients and in 74.1 and 20.0% of cT3N0M0 patients in the NHT and SA groups, respectively. For both cT1c-2N0M0 and cT3N0M0 patients, the downstaging rate was significantly higher in the NHT group than in the SA group (p＜0.01). Positive resection margin rates were significantly lower in the NHT group (34.2%) than in the SA group (65.7%) (p＜0.01). The overall prostate-specific antigen (PSA) progression-free rate did not differ significantly between the 2 groups in both pT0-2N0M0 and pT3N0M0 patients. However, in pT0-2N0M0 patients with negative resection margins, the 5-year PSA progression-free rate was significantly lower in the NHT group than in the SA group (p＜0.01), whereas this rate did not differ significantly between the groups in both pT0-2N0M0 and pT3N0M0 patients with positive resection margins. Although NHT seemed to have some effect on downstaging, its pathological effects could be underestimated. Thus, NHT was considered to have no significant effect on biochemical failure.