Surgical control of clinically localized prostate carcinoma is equivalent in African-American and white males

Few studies have compared the outcome of radical prostatectomy between African-American males (AAM) and white males, and the results of the few studies that have are conflicting. Therefore, the authors examined the impact of radical surgery on localized prostate carcinoma in both patient populations, and assessed whether stratification by pathologic extent of local disease would yield an equivalent outcome.

Prostate specific antigen (PSA) failure and carcinoma-associated death rates were assessed in 1319 patients (115 AAM and 1204 white males), 872 of whom had a pretreatment serum PSA level taken. The percent of prostate involved by tumor, tumor wet weight, and DNA ploidy status were available in 755, 522, and 638 patients, respectively.

AAM were diagnosed at an earlier age than white males (62.8 years vs. 65.4 years; P = 0.0001). The distribution of pathologic extent of local disease was similar in both races, and AAM had a statistically higher rate of tumors with a Gleason sum of 7-10 at surgery than white males (64% vs. 46%). Race did not play a role in the outcome of patients with organ-confined or specimen-confined tumors. However, in patients with positive surgical margins, the median time to PSA failure and the median carcinoma-associated survival were less in AAM compared with white males. Tumor volume was significantly larger in AAM compared with white males. After multivariate adjustment for the pathologic extent of local disease, tumor grade at surgery, preoperative PSA, tumor volume, and age, African-American race was not a significant prognostic indicator for carcinoma-associated death and PSA failure (P = 0.17 and 0.14, respectively).

The outcome of radical prostatectomy was similar in both racial groups, although AAM with positive surgical margins tended to fail earlier than white males, suggesting greater biologic aggressiveness of residual disease. Because local extent of disease impacts on PSA failure and survival, and because the disease appears to present earlier in AAM, the AAM population may benefit from early detection programs.