Objectives: Most adenocarcinomas of the prostate with a Gleason score greater than 8 at radical prostatectomy have extraprostatic extension and a high risk of progression. With prostate-specific antigen screening, we have seen some cases of earlier detected, organ-confined, high-grade adenocarcinoma. Few data are available as to the likelihood of cure in these cases.
Methods: We reviewed 27 cases of pathologically organ-confined adenocarcinoma with a prostatectomy Gleason score of 8 to 10. To exclude cases with a significant proportion of Gleason pattern 3, we excluded cases of Gleason score 3+5=8 and Gleason score 5+3=8. All cases of Gleason score 8 at radical prostatectomy were Gleason score 4+4. The prognostic value of the clinical parameters (clinical stage, serum prostate-specific antigen level, age) and pathologic factors (biopsy Gleason score, radical prostatectomy Gleason score, prostatectomy tumor volume) were tested to predict postoperative progression.
Results: The mean age at diagnosis was 59.7 years (range 46 to 69) with preoperative serum prostate-specific antigen levels ranging from 1.4 to 28 ng/mL (mean 7.8). All tumors were classified as pathologic Stage T2N0Mx. Fifteen patients (55.6%) had a Gleason score of 8, 11 patients (40.7%) had a Gleason score of 9, and 1 had a Gleason score of 10 (3.7%). Tumor volumes ranged from 0.02 to 1.44 cm(3) (mean 0.56). Follow-up information was available for all men. The mean follow-up for those without progression was 30.6 months (range 7 to 73) and for those with progression was 23.6 months (range 9 to 44). The 33-month actuarial risk of progression was 32%, with 10 men developing progression during the study. None of the preoperative or postoperative variables predicted progression.
Conclusions: Even when high-grade tumor is organ confined, it is associated with a relatively unfavorable short-term outcome that is not predictable on the basis of either preoperative clinicopathologic data or postoperative pathologic information obtained from the radical prostatectomy specimen.