Impact of comedonecrosis on prostate cancer outcome: a systematic review

Cribriform architecture has been recognised as an independent parameter for prostate cancer outcome. Little is yet known on the added value of individual Gleason 5 growth patterns. Comedonecrosis is assigned Gleason pattern 5 and can occur in both invasive and intraductal carcinoma. The aim of this study is to systematically review the literature for the prognostic value of comedonecrosis in prostate cancer. A systematic literature search of Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane library and Google scholar was performed according to the Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA)guidelines. After identification and screening of all relevant studies published up to July 2022, 12 manuscripts were included. Clinicopathological data were extracted and the presence of comedonecrosis in either invasive, intraductal or ductal carcinoma was associated with at least one clinical outcome measure. No meta-analysis was performed. Eight of 11 studies showed that comedonecrosis was significantly associated with biochemical recurrence and two studies with metastasis or death. The only studies using metastasis-free and disease specific-free survival as an endpoint both found comedonecrosis to be an independent prognostic parameter in multivariate analysis. The studies were all retrospective and demonstrated considerable heterogeneity with regard to clinical specimen, tumour type, grade group, correction for confounding factors and endpoints. This systematic review demonstrates weak evidence for comedonecrosis to be associated with adverse prostate cancer outcome. Study heterogeneity and lack of correction for confounding factors prohibit drawing of definitive conclusions.