UCLA

Objective

To evaluate whether preoperative urinary prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3) scores predict for adverse pathologic features (APFs) or progression-free survival (PFS) in men with intermediate- or high-risk prostate cancer (PCa) undergoing radical prostatectomy (RP).

Materials and methods

One hundred nine men with intermediate- (n = 52) or high-risk (n = 57) PCa who underwent RP were retrospectively identified. Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the association of PCA3 score with various APFs (eg, extracapsular extension, seminal vesicle invasion, etc.). Among 78 men with ≥1 year of follow-up, the association between PCA3 score and PFS was assessed using Cox regression analysis.

Results

At RP, 52% of patients had at least 1 APF, and with median follow-up of 2.3 years, overall 3-year PFS was 70%. PCA3 was not a significant predictor of any APF on multivariate analysis (MVA), whereas canonical predictors (eg, biopsy Gleason score and initial prostate-specific antigen) remained predictive of various APFs. No significant predictors for PFS were found on MVA, although certain canonical predictors (eg, National Comprehensive Cancer Network risk group) were significant predictors of PFS on univariate analysis (UVA). PCA3 score was not a significant predictor of PFS on either UVA or MVA.

Conclusion

Unlike in lower risk cohorts, increasing PCA3 score was not associated with any APF in this higher risk cohort, despite enrichment for APFs, nor was it associated with PFS. Notably, multiple known preoperative predictors for APFs were significant on MVA, and multiple predictors were associated with PFS on UVA. Therefore, PCA3 may not be a useful adjunct predictive marker in men with intermediate- or high-risk PCa.