WASHINGTON, D.C.—Prostate cancer (PCa) patients found to have extracapsular extension after radical prostatectomy have a greater risk of biochemical recurrence (BCR) recurrence 10 years after surgery, data show.
A study of 244 men who had undetectable PSA levels six month after radical prostatectomy showed that those with extracapsular extension had a significant 6.8 times increased risk of biochemical recurrence 10 years after surgery compared with patients without extracapsular extension.
Of the 244 men, 34 (14%) had extracapsular extension, 69 (28%) had positive surgical margins, and nine (4%) had seminal vesicle invasive. No patient had lymph node involvement. Nineteen patients experienced BCR during a median follow-up of 12.6 years.
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Daniel M. Moreira, MD, a urology resident at the Arthur Smith Institute for Urology in New Hyde Park, NY, presented study findings at the American Urological Association 2011 annual meeting. “Patients with extracapsular extension should be followed closely even 10 years after surgery,” he told Renal & Urology News.
Most biochemical recurrences after radical prostatectomy occur in the first five years after surgery, with late recurrences considered very rare, and no clearly identified risk factors for these late recurrences have been described, Dr. Moreira and his colleagues noted in their poster presentation.
