The greatest dimension of prostate carcinoma is a simple, inexpensive predictor of prostate specific antigen failure in radical prostatectomy specimens.

BACKGROUND

Tumor volume in radical prostatectomies can be determined by several different techniques and appears to predict clinical progression. Greatest tumor dimension and area are easily obtained measures that are both correlated with tumor volume. The authors sought to determine whether greatest tumor dimension and/or area were predictors of prostate specific antigen (PSA) failure in men who underwent radical prostatectomy for adenocarcinoma of the prostate.

METHODS

Fifty-seven men with prostate carcinoma who underwent surgical resection were followed for a median of 27.2 months (range, 1-112 months); 24 (42%) of these men had PSA failure. Preoperative PSA, Gleason grade, pathologic stage, margin status, and greatest tumor dimension and area were determined, and both univariate and multivariate analyses of the outcomes of PSA failure were performed.

RESULTS

In the univariate analysis, larger values of greatest tumor dimension and area were strongly associated with increased incidence of PSA failure (P = 0.0001 and 0.0011, respectively). The forward stepwise multivariate analysis indicated that greatest tumor dimension had marginal statistical significance as a risk factor for PSA failure (P = 0.0577; risk ratio, 1.117). However, in this series, men with a greatest tumor dimension of less than 1 cm did not experience failure, whereas all patients with a greatest tumor dimension of more than 2 cm did.

CONCLUSIONS

Measuring greatest tumor dimension is a simple, inexpensive predictor of PSA failure in men who have undergone radical prostatectomy.