Validation of revised Epstein's criteria for insignificant prostate cancer prediction in a Greek subpopulation.

BACKGROUND

Different treatment options for patients with prostate cancer (PCa) are applicable after stratifying patients according to various classification criteria. The purpose of our study is to evaluate the revised Epstein's criteria for insignificant PCa prediction in a Greek subpopulation.

METHODS

During a 4-year-period, 172 Cretan patients were submitted to radical retropubic prostatectomy in our institution. 23 out of them met the revised Epstein's criteria for the presence of clinically insignificant PCa (clinical stage T1c, prostate specific antigen density < 0.15 ng/ml/g, absence of Gleason pattern 4-5, <3 positive biopsy cores, presence of <50% tumor per core) during pre-treatment evaluation and were retrospectively included in the study. Post-surgery outcomes were evaluated including pathological stage, surgical margins and Gleason score upgrade.

RESULTS

Organ confined disease and insignificant PCa were predicted with a 74% and 31% accuracy, respectively. These figures are remarkably lower than those derived from similar studies worldwide.

CONCLUSIONS

Due to the high variation in the revised Epstein's criteria prediction accuracy observed worldwide, the development and implementation of novel tools/nomograms with a greater predictive accuracy is still warranted. Hippokratia 2015, 19 (1): 30-33.