Abstract:

Objective： To assess the discrepancy between preoperative needle biopsy (NB) Gleason score and pathological specimen Gleason score (GS) after radical prostatectomy, and to explore the risk factors of postoperative upgrading of GS. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 160 patients who suffered from biopsy proved prostatic carcinoma and performed radical prostatectomy. Age of the patients was 57-82 years, with the average age of 71.6; prebiopsy prostate specific antigen (PSA) was 0.31-40.32 μg/L，with the average PSA of 11.29 μg/L; body mass index (BMI) was 16.41-32.04 kg/m2, with the average BMI of 23.63 kg/m2; prostate volume (PV) was 9.52-148.46 mL, with the average PV of 40.19 mL. All the patients included in the study had complete information for clinical variables, including age, BMI, prebiopsy PSA level, PV, number of biopsy cores obtained, percentage, clinical stage, and biopsy GS. Grading of NB Gleason score was compared with their corresponding radical prostatectomy specimens, and the discrepancy between the NB and prostatectomy specimens GS assessed. Upgrading was defined as any increase in the pathological GS over that of the biopsy GS as a total sum of primary and secondary grades or a change in the order of primary and secondary grades towards higher ones. Univariable and multivariable Logistic regression analyses were used to identify predictors of pathological grading changes.  Results: Of the 160 patients, the specimen GS was upgraded in 49 (30.6%) patients and remained with no change in 82 (51.3%) patients. Univariate and multivariate regression analysis showed that prostate volume and biopsy GS were independent predictors with postoperative upgrading of GS. Age, BMI, PSA before needle biopsy, clinical stage and needle number showed no statistical significance (P＞0.05). Conclusion: Lower biopsy GS and smaller prostate volume are increased risks for clinically upgrading of GS after radical prostatectomy. This fact should be kept in mind when deciding on therapy decisions for patients with prostate cancer.

Key words: Prostatic neoplasms, Neoplasm grading, Prostatectomy