Neoadjuvant hormonal deprivation before radical prostatectomy

Our experience with 40 patients receiving complete androgen blockade with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonist and flutamide, prior to radical surgery, has shown a definitive decrease in prostate volume of 40-50%. This significant reduction in volume, induced by the neoadjuvant therapy, seems to facilitate the dissection of the prostate from closely vulnerable structures, with a reduction in blood loss (average 400 ml) and in time of surgery (average 135 min). Clinical downstaging was observed in one third of the patients, but the final pathological staging clearly showed that it is difficult to confirm this issue. Downgrading was not observed, but this is difficult to assess since the biopsies are not representative of the entire heterogeneous tumor. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) dropped to undetectable levels in 59% of the patients 3 months after hormone suppression. Among these, 80% had pT2 and only 13% had pT3 tumors while there was 1 pT0 patient. Patients who still had a PSA of > 4 ng/ml after neoadjuvant therapy all had stage PT3-PT4 disease. Histological changes were observed in both the non-neoplastic tissue and the prostatic carcinoma, with effects being more marked in the latter. PSA, after 3 months of neoadjuvant hormone treatment, might have a useful predictive value in patient selection for radical surgery, since 86% of patients with undetectable PSA had tumors confined to the gland (pT2-B2). Large, prospective, randomized studies, comparing radical prostatectomy against radical prostatectomy with neoadjuvant complete androgen deprivation in locally advanced (T2-T3N0M0) prostatic carcinoma, are needed to assess the true influence of the combined approach on local control, time to progression and overall survival.