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Background: A trend towards inverse stage migration in prostate cancer (PCa) was reported. However, previous analyses did not take into account potential differences in sampling strategies (number of biopsy cores), which might have confounded these reports., Material and Methods: Within our single-institutional database we identified PCa patients treated with radical prostatectomy (RP) between 2000 and 2020 (n = 21,646). We calculated the estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) for D'Amico risk groups, biopsy Gleason Grade Group (GGG), PSA and cT stage as well as postoperative RP GGG and pT stage relying on log linear regression methodology. Subsequently, we repeated the analyses after adjustment for number of cores obtained at biopsy., Results: Absolute rates of D'Amico low risk decreased (-30.1%), while intermediate and high risk increased (+21.2% and +9.0%, respectively). Rates of GGG I decreased (-50.0%), while GGG II-V increased, with the largest increase in GGG II (+22.5%). This trend, albeit less pronounced, was also recorded after adjusted EAPC analyses (p < .05). Specifically, EAPC values for D'Amico low vs intermediate vs high risk were -1.07%, +0.37%, +0.45%, respectively, and EAPC values for GGG ranged between -0.71% (GGG I) and +0.80% (GGG IV). Finally, an increase in ≥cT2 (EAPC: +3.16%) was displayed (all p < .001). These trends were confirmed in EAPC calculations in RP GGG and pT stages (p < .001)., Conclusion: Our findings confirm the trend towards less frequent treatment of low risk PCa and more frequent treatment of high risk PCa, also after adjustment for number of biopsy cores., (© 2021 The Authors. The Prostate Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: Transrectal prostate biopsy (pbx) is the most frequent outpatient procedure in the urological field. Septic complications are a major health issue., Objective: To evaluate complication rates with or without an antimicrobial lubricant., Design, Setting, and Participants: A total of 1000 patients received pbx between 2013 and 2015. Information about complications was collected by a 3-wk questionnaire. Return rate was 73.2% (n=732)., Intervention: Randomization for pbx with the instillation of an antimicrobial lubricant (intervention group, n=385) or the standard lubricant (control group, n=347) was performed., Outcome Measurements and Statistical Analysis: Multivariable analyses assessed the association between infectious complications at biopsy and use of an antimicrobial lubricant, International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), history of urogenitourinary infections, and several other confounders., Results and Limitations: The use of an antimicrobial lubricant did not reduce infection rate. Overall complication rate was very low. Of all patients, 69.3% described the procedure as pain free. Fever ≥38.5°C was reported in overall 1.9% of patients. Urinary retention with catheterization occurred in 3.1%. Most common complications were hematospermia (47.4%), macrohematuria (23.8%), and rectal bleeding (7.4%). Readmission rate was 1% (n=7). In multivariable analyses, IPSS and previous infectious complications were associated with a higher risk of infectious complications. Our results stem from a large German single center and therefore are limited to this patient group., Conclusions: No significant reduction was shown in infectious complications in the intervention group with the antimicrobial agent. Low incidence of those complications may be the underlying cause. Severe morbidity at pbx is uncommon. Specifically, the rate of infection was very low., Patient Summary: Severe complications at prostate biopsy are rare. Among participants, 69.3% had no pain. Fever was rare (1.9% of patients). Voiding issues with catheterization occurred in 3.1%. Most common complications were blood in the semen (47.4%), urine (23.8%), or stool (7.4%). Men with voiding issues or previous infectious complications had a higher risk of infectious complications., (Copyright © 2018 European Association of Urology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Following definitive treatment with curative intent a subset of patients with prostate cancer experience biochemical recurrence. In these patients clinical parameters are mostly used to decide if a local or systemic disease recurrence is present. While salvage radiation treatment is advocated for local recurrence after radical prostatectomy, no standard recommendations exist in cases of local recurrence after primary radiation therapy although salvage prostatectomy may be considered. Imaging procedures have traditionally not routinely been recommended for the onset of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) relapse; however, prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET) computed tomography (CT) exhibits high detection rates even at low PSA values. Thus, the current German guidelines state that PSMA PET/CT can be considered if this could result in a decisive change in further treatment management. Currently, a positive influence on oncological long-term outcome, however, has not yet been proven.

Background: Presence of small (tertiary) Gleason 5 pattern is linked to a higher risk of biochemical recurrence in prostate cancer. It is unclear, however, how to integrate small Gleason 5 elements into clinically relevant Gleason grade groups., Objective: To analyze the prognostic impact of Gleason 5 patterns in prostate cancer and to develop a method for integrating tertiary Gleason 5 patterns into a quantitative Gleason grading system., Design, Setting, and Participants: Prostatectomy specimens from 13 261 consecutive patients and of 3295 matched preoperative biopsies were available. Percentages of Gleason 3, 4, and 5 had been recorded for each cancer. Outcome measurements and statistical analysis: RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: Our data demonstrate that minimal Gleason 5 areas have strong prognostic impact in Gleason 7 carcinomas, while further expansion of the Gleason 5 pattern population has less impact. We thus defined an integrated quantitative Gleason score (IQ-Gleason) by adding a lump score of 10 to the percentage of unfavorable Gleason pattern (Gleason 4/5) if any Gleason 5 was present and by adding another 7.5 points in case of a Gleason 5 fraction >20%. There was a continuous increase of the risk of prostate-specific antigen recurrence with increasing IQ-Gleason. This was also true for subgroups with identical Cancer of the Prostate Risk Assessment Postsurgical scores (p<0.0001) or Gleason grade groups (p<0.0001)., Conclusions: The IQ-Gleason represents a simple and efficient approach for combining both quantitative Gleason grading and tertiary Gleason grades in one highly prognostic numerical variable., Patient Summary: Prostatectomy specimens (13 261) were analyzed to estimate the relevance of small Gleason 5 elements in prostate cancers. Even the smallest Gleason 5 areas markedly increased the risk of prostate-specific antigen recurrence after surgery. Larger fractions of Gleason 5 patterns had less further impact on prognosis. Based on this, a numerical Gleason score (integrated quantitative Gleason score) was defined by the percentages of Gleason 4 and 5 patterns, enabling a refined estimate of patient prognosis., (Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: The 2011 European Association of Urology (EAU) guidelines for prostate cancer recommend a pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND) at radical prostatectomy (RP) in all individuals with a nomogram predicted lymph node invasion (LNI) risk of >7%., Methods: To test the performing characteristics for several thresholds (1-14%) and to examine the overall accuracy and calibration plot of the EAU nomogram at our institution. The study population consisted of 3081 patients treated with RP and PLND limited to the obturator fossa and the external iliac vein between 2008 and 2010 at a single European institution from Germany. More extensive PLNDs were performed at the surgeon's discretion., Results: Overall, 260 patients (9.2%) had LNI. The 7% threshold would have avoided 30% of PLNDs, at the cost of missing 8% of patients with LNI. The use of 8% and 9% threshold would have allowed the avoidance of respectively 39% and 48% of PLNDs, at the cost of missing respectively 12% and 14% of patients with LNI. The accuracy of the LNI nomogram was 78%, and the unadjusted departure from ideal calibration was 5.3%., Conclusions: We confirmed adequate accuracy and calibration of the LNI nomogram. The 7% cut-off may be overly conservative. Better trade-offs between avoided PLNDs and missed LNI cases may be achieved with a limit of 8 or even 9%., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: • To investigate the stage migration patterns during the last decade in European men treated with radical prostatectomy (RP)., Patients and Methods: • Between 2000 and 2009, RP was performed in 8916 patients at a single European tertiary-care institution. • Age at diagnosis, clinical and pathological data were prospectively collected, and trends and proportions of preoperative and pathological findings were analysed over time., Results: • The median (mean) age of patients increased from 62 (62) to 63 (65) years between 2000 and 2009 (P < 0.001). • When patients were stratified based on their clinical findings according to the D'Amico risk groups for disease progression, the proportion of low-risk patients dropped from 66% in 2004 to 35% (P= 0.016) in the final year of the study period. • Similarly, histopathological evaluation of RP specimens showed a decrease of favourable disease (organ confinement and Gleason 3 + 3 grade) from 53 to 17% (P= 0.008). • This trend was accompanied by an increase in the number of patients with non-organ-confined prostate cancer (PCa) from 19% in 2003 to 33% in 2009 (P= 0.008). • The restriction of the analyses in the present study to a single tertiary-care centre could limit the generalizeability of the results., Conclusions: • During the last decade, we observed an inverse stage migration trend in those European patients with PCa who were treated with RP. • The recorded increase in patients with non-organ-confined disease after RP could be related to changes in patient selection and the growing adoption of RP in multimodal treatment settings for locally advanced tumours as well as the availability of new treatment alternatives for low-risk disease., (© 2010 THE AUTHORS. BJU INTERNATIONAL © 2010 BJU INTERNATIONAL.)

Background: Knowledge about the staging significance of the prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3) score to better identify pathologic features after radical prostatectomy (RP) is limited and controversial., Objective: Our aim was to study the clinical staging significance of PCA3 to identify pathologic favorable and/or unfavorable features in the RP specimen., Design, Setting, and Participants: Complete retrospective clinical and pathologic data of consecutive men who had undergone RP from three tertiary referral centers including preoperative PCA3 scores (n=305) and computer-assisted planimetrically measured tumor volume data (n=160) were available., Intervention: All patients were treated with RP., Measurements: PCA3 scores were assessed using the PROGENSA assay (Gen-Probe, San Diego, CA, USA). Beyond standard risk factors (age, digital rectal examination, prostate-specific antigen, prostate volume, biopsy Gleason score, percentage of positive cores), five different PCA3 codings were used in logistic regression models to identify five distinct pathologic end points: (1) low-volume disease (<0.5 ml), (2) insignificant prostate cancer (PCa) according to the Epstein criteria, (3) extracapsular extension (ECE), (4) seminal vesicle invasion (SVI), and (5) aggressive disease defined as Gleason sum ≥7. Accuracy estimates of each end point were quantified using the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operator characteristic analysis in models with and without PCA3., Results and Limitations: PCA3 scores were significantly lower in low-volume disease and insignificant PCa (p ≤ 0.001). AUC of multivariable low-volume disease (+2.4 to +5.5%) and insignificant PCa models (+3 to +3.9%) increased when PCA3 was added to standard clinical risk factors. In contradistinction, regardless of its coding, PCA3 scores were not significantly elevated in pathologically confirmed ECE (p=0.4) or SVI (p=0.5), respectively. Higher PCA3 scores were associated with aggressive disease (p<0.001). Importantly, the addition of PCA3 to multivariable intermediate- and high-grade models did not improve prediction. Despite reporting the largest pathologic PCA3 study, the main limitation resides in its small sample size., Conclusions: PCA3 was confirmed as a valuable predictor of pathologically confirmed low-volume disease and insignificant PCa. Further exploration of its role as an additional marker to select patients for active surveillance may be warranted. In contradistinction, assessment of pathologically advanced or aggressive PCa is not improved using PCA3., (Copyright © 2010 European Association of Urology. All rights reserved.)

Background: Several models can predict the rate of biochemical recurrence (BCR) after radical prostatectomy (RP)., Objective: We tested the three most commonly used models-the D'Amico risk stratification scheme, the Cancer of the Prostate Risk Assessment (CAPRA) score, and the Stephenson nomogram-in a European cohort of RP patients., Design, Setting, and Participants: We relied on preoperative characteristics and prostate-specific antigen follow-up data of 1976 patients, as required by the three tested models. All patients were treated with an open RP between 1992 and 2006., Measurements: Analyses included tests of accuracy (Harrell's concordance index) and calibration between predicted and observed BCR rates at 3 yr and 5 yr after RP. Additionally, we relied on decision curve analyses to compare the three models directly in a head-to-head fashion., Results and Limitations: The median follow-up of censored patients was 32 mo. BCR-free rates at 3 yr and 5 yr after RP were 80.2% and 72.6%, respectively. The concordance index for 3-yr BCR predictions was 70.4%, 74.3%, and 75.2% for the D'Amico, CAPRA, and Stephenson models, respectively, versus 67.4%, 72.9%, and 73.5% for 5-yr BCR predictions. Calibration results supported the use of either the CAPRA or Stephenson models. Decision curve analyses indicated a small benefit for the CAPRA score relative to the Stephenson nomogram. Our findings apply to German patients treated with RP at a high-volume tertiary care centre. Consequently, the rank order reported in this paper may not be the same in North American or other European cohorts., Conclusions: Different methods yield different results, and it may be difficult to reconcile concordance index, calibration, and decision curve analysis findings. Our data suggest that the CAPRA score outperforms the other models when decision curve analysis and calibration were used as benchmarks. Conversely, the Stephenson nomogram outperformed the other models when concordance index was used as a metric., (Crown Copyright © 2009. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)