Comparing effectiveness of radical prostatectomy versus external beam radiotherapy in patients with locally advanced prostate cancer

Abstract

Currently, the standard management for locally advanced prostate cancer (PCa) is still controversial. In our study, we aimed to compare the survival outcomes of radical prostatectomy (RP) versus external beam radiotherapy (EBRT).We conducted analyses with a large cohort of 38,544 patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database (2004-2016). Propensity score matching, Kaplan-Meier method, and Cox proportional hazard regression were used to reduce the influence of bias and compare the overall survival (OS) and cancer specific survival (CSS). Several different sensitivity analyses including inverse probability of treatment weighting and standardized mortality ratio weighting were used to verify the robustness of the results.Totally, 33,388 men received RP and 5,156 men received EBRT with cT3-4N0M0 PCa were included in this study. According to the Kaplan-Meier curves, RP performed better in both OS and CSS compared with EBRT (P < .0001). In the adjusted multivariate Cox regression, RP also showed better OS and CSS benefits (OS: HR=0.50; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.46-0.54; P < .0001 and CSS: HR=0.43; 95% CI: 0.38-0.49; P < .0001). After propensity score matching, RP is still the management that can bring more survival benefits to patients. (OS: HR=0.46; 95% CI: 0.41-0.51; P < .0001 and CSS: HR = 0.41; 95% CI: 0.34-0.48; P < .0001).Our research demonstrated the significantly better survival benefits of RP over EBRT in patients with locally advanced PCa. The results of this study will provide more evidence to help clinicians choose appropriate treatment strategies.