Robotic radical prostatectomy as the initial step in multimodal therapy for men with high-risk localised prostate cancer: initial experience of 160 men

Objectives: • To report the outcome of robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALP) for men with localised high-risk prostate cancer at diagnosis. • Although commonly managed by radiotherapy (RT) with prolonged androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT), we hypothesize that initiation of multimodal therapy with RALP is oncologically efficacious and may allow many men to avoid ADT.

Patients and methods: • Between December 2003 and September 2010, 1480 men underwent RALP of whom 160 fulfilled the National Comprehensive Control Network criteria for high-risk disease (prostate-specific antigen (PSA) > 20 ng/mL and/or clinical stage, cT ≥ 3 and/or biopsy Gleason score ≥ 8). • Biochemical recurrence (postoperative PSA ≥ 0.2) was used to assess outcome after RALP monotherapy. • Treatment failure was defined as either a rising PSA level after salvage RT or the initiation of ADT.

Results: • The mean age ± standard deviation was 63.1 ± 6.3 years. Median PSA level was 9.95 ng/mL (interquartile range 6.0-21.4). • Analysis of prostatectomy specimen showed Gleason 8-10 cancers in 65 (41%), and extracapsular disease, pT ≥ 3, in 96 (60%) of which seminal vesicle invasion was evident in 36 (23%). Downgrading by prostatectomy occurred in 64 (40% of total group) and five (3%) were downstaged to pT2 disease. By contrast, any upgrading occurred in 29 (18% of total group) and upstaging occurred in 68 (43%). The overall positive surgical margin rate was 38%, correlating with stage pT2 (15%) or pT3 (53%). • With median follow-up of 26.2 months (interquartile range 5.5-37.3), two non-cancer-related deaths have occurred (overall survival 98.8%; cancer-specific survival 100%), and biochemical recurrence has occurred in 53 men (33%). RALP surgery has served as monotherapy (n= 117, 73%), or has been followed by salvage RT (n= 24, 15%) and/or ADT (n= 43, 27%). Overall 2-year and 3-year treatment failure was 31 and 41%, respectively. • Serum PSA level was the only independent predictor of overall treatment failure (hazard ratio [HR] 1.02, P= 0.001) although a strong trend was observed for both clinical stage (HR 1.22, P= 0.058) and the number of positive biopsy cores on transrectal biopsy (HR 1.06, P= 0.057).

Conclusions: • RALP incorporating the use of postoperative RT is a good multimodal management strategy for men with this aggressive variant of prostate cancer. • At median follow-up in excess of 2 years, we found low rates of treatment failure enabling a high proportion of men to remain free of ADT.