Pathologic upgrading on confirmatory biopsy in a racially diverse group of men on active surveillance for prostate cancer.

Abstract

142 Background: To evaluate the clinical variables associated with upgrading at confirmatory biopsy among a racially-diverse group of men with prostate cancer (PCa) who elect Active Surveillance (AS). Methods: Following IRB approval, of the more than 260 men from our multi-institutional prospective AS database we identified 140 that had undergone at least 1 confirmatory biopsy since their initial diagnosis. Patients whose diagnosis was made on TURP, had any Gleason 4 on their initial biopsy or whose initial and confirmatory biopsy were more than 2 years apart were excluded. The analysis cohort included 121 men who had Gleason Score ≤ 6, clinical stage ≤ T2a and PSA ≤ 20 ng/mL. Disease upgrading on confirmatory biopsy was Gleason score ≥ 7. Multiple variables were examined as univariate and MV predictors of upgrading. Results: We identified 121 men who fit inclusion criteria, 55 (45%) African Americans (AA) and 66 non-AA (55%) with a median follow-up of 22 months. The median age was 66, median number of biopsy cores taken at diagnostic biopsy was 12 and median time interval between diagnostic and confirmatory biopsy was 12 months. On confirmatory biopsy, no evidence of disease was noted for 51 (42%) men (26 AA, 25 non-AA), 48 (40%) men (18, AA, 30 non-AA) had findings consistent with their initial biopsy and 22 men (11 AA, 11 non-AA) experienced upgrading at repeat biopsy. Of the 22 (18%) men who were upgraded, 18 (8 AA, 10 non-AA) upgraded to a Gleason score of 7, 3 (2 AA, 1 non-AA) were upgraded to a Gleason score of 8 and 1 (AA) had a Gleason score of 9. In univariate analysis AA race was associated with a greater number of positive cores (p = 0.04) and greater total prostate volume (p = 0.03) at confirmatory biopsy. Multivariate analysis was performed and none of the clinical variables examined (race, age, BMI, PSA, volume, PSAD, number of positive cores, total number of cores, percentage of positive cores, time between biopsies) were associated with upgrading on repeat biopsy. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that race is not associated with an increased risk of upgrading at confirmatory biopsy. AA with low-risk PCa are reasonable candidates for inclusion in most AS protocols and should not be excluded based on race alone.