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. 2024 Jun 4;16(11):2137.
doi: 10.3390/cancers16112137.

Prognostic Impact and Clinical Implications of Adverse Tumor Grade in Very Favorable Low- and Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer Patients Treated with Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy: Experience of a Single Tertiary Referral Center

Antonio Benito Porcaro  1 , Alberto Bianchi  1 , Sebastian Gallina  1 , Andrea Panunzio  1 , Alessandro Tafuri  2 , Emanuele Serafin  1 , Rossella Orlando  1 , Giovanni Mazzucato  1 , Paola Irene Ornaghi  1 , Francesco Cianflone  1 , Francesca Montanaro  1 , Francesco Artoni  1 , Alberto Baielli  1 , Francesco Ditonno  1   3 , Filippo Migliorini  1 , Matteo Brunelli  4 , Salvatore Siracusano  5 , Maria Angela Cerruto  1 , Alessandro Antonelli  1
Affiliations

Prognostic Impact and Clinical Implications of Adverse Tumor Grade in Very Favorable Low- and Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer Patients Treated with Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy: Experience of a Single Tertiary Referral Center

Antonio Benito Porcaro et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the prognostic impact and predictors of adverse tumor grade in very favorable low- and intermediate-risk prostate cancer (PCa) patients treated with robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP).

Methods: Data of low- and intermediate PCa risk-class patients were retrieved from a prospectively maintained institutional database. Adverse tumor grade was defined as pathology ISUP grade group > 2. Disease progression was defined as a biochemical recurrence event and/or local recurrence and/or distant metastases. Associations were assessed by Cox's proportional hazards and logistic regression model.

Results: Between January 2013 and October 2020, the study evaluated a population of 289 patients, including 178 low-risk cases (61.1%) and 111 intermediate-risk subjects (38.4%); unfavorable tumor grade was detected in 82 cases (28.4%). PCa progression, which occurred in 29 patients (10%), was independently predicted by adverse tumor grade and biopsy ISUP grade group 2, with the former showing stronger associations (hazard ratio, HR = 4.478; 95% CI: 1.840-10.895; p = 0.001) than the latter (HR = 2.336; 95% CI: 1.057-5.164; p = 0.036). Older age and biopsy ISUP grade group 2 were independent clinical predictors of adverse tumor grade, associated with larger tumors that eventually presented non-organ-confined disease.

Conclusions: In a very favorable PCa patient population, adverse tumor grade was an unfavorable prognostic factor for disease progression. Active surveillance in very favorable intermediate-risk patients is still a hazard, so molecular and genetic testing of biopsy specimens is needed.

Keywords: adverse pathology outcomes; intermediate-risk prostate cancer; low-risk prostate cancer; progression of prostate cancer; prostate cancer; robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP); tumor upgrading; tumor upstaging.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Survival risk curves of prostate cancer (PCa) progression (univariate Cox’s proportional hazards) stratified by International Society of Urologic Pathology (ISUP) grade group at diagnostic biopsy (hazard ratio, HR = 2.231; 95% CI: 1.072–4.643; p = 0.032).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Survival risk curves of prostate cancer (PCa) progression (univariate Cox’s proportional hazards) stratified by adverse pathology tumor grade according to the International Society of Urologic Pathology (ISUP > 2; hazard ratio, HR = 3.300; 95% CI: 1.590–4.643; p = 0.001).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Survival risk curves of prostate cancer (PCa) progression (univariate Cox’s proportional hazards) stratified by adverse pathology tumor grade according to the International Society of Urologic Pathology (ISUP) system in very favorable low-risk PCa patients.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Survival risk curves of prostate cancer (PCa) progression (univariate Cox’s proportional hazards) stratified by adverse tumor grade according to the International Society of Urologic Pathology in very favorable intermediate-risk PCa patients.
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