[Radical post-prostatectomy biochemical relapse in patients with pathological factors treated with adjuvant versus...

In patients with prostate cancer and high-risk pathological factors, adjuvant radiotherapy (ART) has been reported to be superior to observation for local disease control and progressionfree survival. But more than 30% of the patients do not present biochemical relapse (BR) and therefore the ART associated with the toxicity can be avoided. It has not been determined whether close observation with early salvage radiotherapy provides a similar result to ART.

Patients with localized prostate cancer treated with radical prostatectomy (RP) at the Institute of Cancerology (Medellín-Colombia), and those who had adverse predictors of biochemical relapse were included: extracapsular compromise, seminal vesicle involvement (pT3), and positive surgical margins (PSM) or not. Biochemical progression-free survival was compared between ART group and the observation group.

Of 171 patients treated with RP, 55 had at least one adverse pathological factor. Of them, 33 (60%) were observed and 22 (40%) received ART. The median follow-up was 55 months (IQR: 37-89). Biochemical relapse occurred in 6 (18.2%) of the first group and 3 (13.6%) of the second group (p>0.05). Biochemical progression-free survival was 24.2% (95%CI: 11.5%-39.6%) in the observation group and 47.7% (95CI: 26.3%-66.4%) in the ART.

After radical prostatectomy, the biochemical relapse in the patient with high-risk prostate cancer was similar in the observation group and in the ART group.