Purpose
In general, the index lesion of prostate cancer has the largest tumor volume, the highest Grade Group (GG), and the highest stage (concordant cases). However these factors sometimes do not coincide within one lesion (discordant cases). In such discordant cases, the largest tumor may not be of biological significance and the secondary tumor may more greatly impact the prognosis.
Materials and Methods
We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients who underwent radical prostatectomy, and we identified 580 (85.3%) concordant cases and 100 (14.7%) discordant cases. The endpoint of this study was biochemical recurrence (BCR) and median follow-up was 4.2 years.
Results
Among discordant cases in which GGs of the largest tumor and the highest GG tumor differed, the majority (67 patients) had the largest tumor of GG 2 and we set them as the study cohort. On the other hand, we regarded 212 concordant cases with an index tumor of GG 2 as the control cohort. The study cohort comprised 48 (71.6%) patients with a secondary tumor of GG 3 and 19 (28.4%) with a secondary tumor of GG 4/5. Kaplan-Meier curves revealed that the 5-year BCR-free survival rates were 76%, and 67%, respectively. The 5-year BCR-free survival rate of the control cohort was 91%, which was significantly better than that of the study cohort (p=0.013 and 0.014, respectively).
Conclusions
Our study suggested that the prognosis of discordant cases is better determined by the secondary cancer lesion with the highest GG instead of the largest lesion.