Mortality prospects after a prostate cancer recurrences following a radical prostatectomy has always been assumed to be directly related to the early development of metastases. A study from Melbourne Australia indicates that men with low-risk prostate cancer have good mortality prospects even when they experience early biochemical recurrence.
The first author of the study, Anthony Ta, MBBS, of the Austin Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, told Urology Times “The implication of this study is that if someone has low-risk disease at the time of their prostatectomy, they can be told that their prognosis is good with proper PSA surveillance.”
The study was presented at the AUA annual meeting in Atlanta, Ga. Their data was taken from a retrospective study from the Victorian Radical Prostatectomy Register, a statewide registry of prostate cancer patients. They identified 2,116 men who had a radical prostatectomy between 1995 and 2000. Of these, 695 (33%) developed biochemical recurrence (two consecutive PSA readings of >0.2 ?g/L). The majority (82%) of the recurrences appeared within 5 years of surgery. Using this data they performed regression models to calcula