Smoking effect on oncological outcome among men with prostate cancer after radical prostatectomy

Objective: To analyze the association between smoking and oncological outcome after radical prostatectomy in patients with prostate cancer.

Methods: This study included men who underwent radical prostatectomy between 2003 and 2013. The association of clinicopathological factors with smoking status and the prognostic significance of clinicopathological factors and smoking status on biochemical recurrence (BCR) were evaluated.

Results: Of the 1165 included patients, 226 (19.4%) were current smokers and 939 (80.6%) were nonsmokers. The median observation period was 39 months (interquartile range, 15-75 months). Current smokers were younger than nonsmokers and had higher PSA levels, higher biopsy and pathological Gleason scores, and more frequent lymph-node involvement than nonsmokers. Pathological Gleason score, extracapsular extension, seminal vesicle invasion, positive surgical margin, lymph-node involvement, and current smoking (hazard ratio [95% confidence interval]; 1.31 [1.00-1.72], P = 0.046) were identified as significant risk factors of BCR on univariate analysis. However, smoking status was not an independent predictive marker on multivariate analysis.

Conclusions: Current smokers had adverse clinicopathological characteristics including high PSA level, high Gleason score, and lymph node involvement, suggesting that smoking promoted the progression of prostate cancer.