Poor association between the progression criteria in active surveillance and subsequent histopathological findings following radical prostatectomy

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the association between active surveillance (AS) progression criteria and histopathology features in subsequent radical prostatectomy (RP) specimens.

Materials and methods: Of 229 patients managed on AS, 80 patients underwent RP, of whom 68 met at least one of the following three progression criteria: progression on rebiopsy, short prostate-specific antigen (PSA) doubling time (PSAdt) and increase clinical tumour category (cT). Patients revealing histopathological features in the RP specimens involving GS ≥ 7 (3 + 4) were considered to have achieved a potential survival gain from the procedure (timely RP). The association between the progression criteria and timely RP was analysed using univariate logistic regression analyses.

Results: Of the 68 patients who met at least one of the progression criteria, 66% had timely RP features. Progression on rebiopsy was significantly associated with timely RP [odds ratio (OR) = 5.00, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.51-16.51]. Although not statistically significant, progression defined by PSAdt was negatively associated with timely RP (OR = 0.36, 95% CI 0.13-1.00). Increase in cT showed no association with timely RP (OR = 1.17, 95% CI 0.35-3.87).

Conclusions: A poor association was found between the progression criteria employed in the AS programme and histopathology features after subsequent RP. Only progression on rebiopsy was significantly associated with final histopathology.