[Prognostic factors in patients with prostatic cancer treated with neoadjuvant hormonal therapy and radical...

The high incidence of clinical understaging and positive margins in patients undergoing radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer has led to the use of neoadjuvant hormone therapy to reduce tumor volume.

To determine the prognostic factors in patients with prostate cancer treated with hormone therapy and radical prostatectomy.

80 patients received hormone therapy with LH-RH agonists and flutamide before undergoing radical prostatectomy. The clinical stage and serum PSA were determined before and after hormone therapy. Prostate volume was determined by transrectal US.

In 91% of the patients, PSA levels fell within the normal ranges (< 4 micrograms/l) after hormone therapy. Prostate volume diminished by 39% on average. There were no operative deaths. Histological analysis of the surgical specimen showed no tumor (pTO) in 10% of the cases. Sixteen cases (19.5%) had pelvic node invasion. Positive margins were found in 35% of stage 2 and 56% of stage 3 tumors. Seminal vesicle invasion was found in 35% of T2 and 84% of T3 tumors. Seventy-five percent of the cases with initial PSA levels < 10 micrograms/l had intracapsular (pT2) or pTO tumor. All cases with PSA > 25 micrograms/l had extraglandular tumor. A correlation was found between baseline PSA and incidence of positive-margins. The finding of undetectable PSA after hormone therapy is not a useful prognostic factor since 55% of the cases had extracapsular tumor.

Our results indicate that hormone therapy with LH-RH agonist and flutamide prior to radical prostatectomy in patients with prostate cancer is well-tolerated and has no severe side effects. Despite the high percentage of cases with undetectable PSA after hormone therapy, no correlation was found between reduction of PSA levels and tumor stage.