Radical prostatectomy then and now: Surgical overtreatment of prostate cancer is declining from 2009 to 2016 at a tertiary referral center.

<bold>Background: </bold>In the era of increasing scrutiny of delivery of quality care, efforts to decrease surgical overtreatment of insignificant prostate cancer (iCaP) continue.<bold>Objective: </bold>To quantify the incidence of surgical overtreatment over time among a contemporary series of men diagnosed with CaP.<bold>Methods: </bold>We retrospectively reviewed the medical records and pathologic specimens for men with CaP who underwent radical prostatectomy between January 2009 and December 2016 at a tertiary referral center. Overtreatment, defined as presence of iCaP in radical prostatectomy specimens, was the primary endpoint. iCaP was defined as a tumor of Gleason score no more than 6 and a tumor diameter ≤10mm (volume <0.5 cc). Independent predictors of iCaP were determined using a multivariable model.<bold>Results: </bold>A total of 1,283 men were eligible for analysis. Overtreatment was found in 86 (6.7%) patients. The frequency of overtreatment significantly decreased from 15% (24/165) in 2009 to 3% (4/134) of patients in 2016 (P < 0.001). In the multivariable analysis, prostate-specific antigen density ≥0.15 vs. <0.15 (odds ratio [OR] 0.30, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.15-0.64, P < 0.01), biopsy Gleason score 3+4 vs. 3+3 (OR 0.15, 95% CI 0.08-0.29, P < 0.01), African American vs. White ethnicity (OR 0.13, 95% CI 0.02-0.96, P = 0.045), and year of surgery (OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.77-0.99, P = 0.03) remained significant predictors of iCaP at surgery. Over the years of study, the odds of overtreatment decreased by 12% annually (OR 0.88, 95 CI 0.77-0.99, P = 0.03). At the same time, the pathological evidence of advanced disease at surgery (≥T3a with/without lymph node involvement) remained unchanged.<bold>Comment: </bold>Surgical overtreatment of CaP has declined to a rate of approximately 3% at this tertiary referral center; further decline is likely. The decline probably has a multifactorial explanation: decreased rate of overdiagnosis, better patient selection for surgery, or change in the referral pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]