A solitary positive prostate cancer biopsy does not predict a unilateral lesion in radical prostatectomy specimens

Prostate cancer (PCa) may be a multifocal and bilateral disease. Patients with low-risk PCa and a low number of positive biopsy cores may choose to undergo active surveillance or focal therapy. The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between a solitary positive prostate biopsy core and the pathological outcome after radical prostatectomy (RP).

The Michinoku Japan Urological Cancer Study Group database contains data, including preoperative and postoperative information, on 1268 consecutive patients with PCa treated with RP alone at four institutions. This study focused on 151 patients with a single positive biopsy core, preoperative prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level less than 10 ng/ml, biopsy Gleason score less than 8, and clinical stage T1c/T2a/T2b disease. Potential preoperative predictors of unilateral PCa were age, preoperative PSA level, biopsy Gleason score and clinical T stage.

The median age and preoperative PSA level were 65 years (range 47-76 years) and 6.00 ng/ml (range 0.50-9.80 ng/ml), respectively. Unilateral PCa was identified in 41% of the patients. Extraprostatic extension or seminal vesicle invasion was observed in 26% of all patients.

Serum PSA levels were significantly higher in the bilateral PCa group than in the unilateral PCa group in the current study. For patients with PCa having a solitary positive prostate biopsy core, definitive therapy such as RP should be considered.