Impact of neurovascular bundle preservation on biochemical recurrence after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy for high-risk prostate cancer.

PURPOSE

To evaluate functional and oncological outcomes in patients who underwent unilateral or bilateral nerve-sparing (NS) robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) for high-risk prostate cancer.

METHODS

The cohort comprised 2683 patients with clinical stage T1-4, N0M0 high-risk prostate cancer who underwent RARP in Japanese tertiary care centers from August 2011 to April 2023. High risk was defined using the European Association of Urology risk stratification criteria. Patients were classified as high risk if they had clinical stage T2c-T4, a serum prostate-specific antigen concentration (PSA) of > 20 ng/dL, or an International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) grade of 4-5. Patients were grouped into NS and non-NS surgery groups. Propensity score matching was performed (1:1 ratio) to reduce confounding bias. The primary outcome was biochemical recurrence (BCR)-free survival (BCR-FS). The impact of NS surgery on BCR-FS was examined in the propensity score-matched cohort using Cox proportional hazards regression.

RESULTS

The propensity score-matched cohort comprised 1722 patients. In the matched cohort, median follow-up was 31.9 months. The 5-year BCR-FS was 70.2% in the NS group and 71.9% in the non-NS group (HR 1.05; 95% confidence interval, 0.85-1.29). NS surgery did not increase the risk of BCR in subgroups of patients stratified according to ISUP grade, T stage, percent cancer core involvement, and PSA.

CONCLUSION

Neurovascular bundle preservation during RARP for high-risk prostate cancer appears feasible without increasing the BCR rate. However, the retrospective study design carries the potential influence of selection bias.