Trends in risk-group distribution and Pentafecta outcomes in patients treated with nerve-sparing, robot-assisted radical prostatectomy: a 10-year low-intermediate volume single-center experience.

PURPOSE

To evaluate the trends in risk-group distribution and Pentafecta outcomes in patients treated with nerve-sparing (NS), robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) in a single low-intermediate volume prostate cancer (PCa) center over a 10-year period.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We queried a prospectively maintained database for patients who underwent NS RARP between 2009 and 2018 in a low-intermediate volume PCa center. Risk-groups were defined according to the D'Amico classification. Pentafecta outcomes referred to the postsurgical presence of potency and continence, and the absence of biochemical recurrence (BCR), positive surgical margins (PSM), and perioperative complications. The Kruskall-Wallis test, the t test and the Mann-Whitney tests were used when appropriate.

RESULTS

603 patients underwent NS RARP and 484 patients were evaluated for Pentafecta outcomes. Median postsurgical follow-up was 28 months. Overall, 137 (22.7%), 376 (62.3%), and 90 (15%) patients were diagnosed in the low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups, respectively. Patients undergoing NS RARP shifted from 33 to 20% in the low-risk group, from 52 to 62% in the intermediate-risk group, and from 10 to 13% in the high-risk group. Patients reaching Pentafecta increased from 38 to 44%. No postoperative potency was the main reason for non-achieving Pentafecta (71%). BCR strongly limited Pentafecta achievement in the high-risk group (61%), but not in intermediate (24%) and low-risk (30%) groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Low-intermediate volume PCa centers show similar trends to high-volume centers regarding risk group distributions over time in PCa patients undergoing NS RARP. We reported an increase in Pentafecta outcomes achievement over time even for experienced surgeons. Pentafecta outcomes achievement is risk-group dependent.