Is microvascular invasion on radical prostatectomy specimens a useful predictor of PSA recurrence for prostate cancer patients?

OBJECTIVE: Angiogenesis is believed to play an important role in tumor progression and metastasis. The goal of this study was to investigate the clinical utility of vascular invasion in prostate cancer patients treated by radical prostatectomy as a predictor of PSA recurrence.
METHODS: Between 1993 and 1998, 241 patients underwent radical prostatectomy at our institution and had routine analysis of vascular and/or lymphatic invasion (V/LI). V/LI was correlated with preoperative parameters including digital rectal examination (DRE), Gleason score (GS) on biopsy and serum PSA, with the pathological findings and with biochemical recurrence.
RESULTS: V/LI incidence was 12.4% (30 of 241 patients). Of the 30 patients with V/LI, 28 (93%) had GS > or =7 (67%) had a pT3 disease and 7 had SV invasion (23%). V/LI was not associated with DRE and GS on prostate needle biopsy. However, V/LI was correlated with the worst pathological findings including pT3 disease, seminal invasion, positive surgical margins and GS on prostate specimen > or = 7. Biochemical recurrence-free survival was 92.5% for the patients without V/LI as compared to 30.1% for patients with V/LI on prostate specimen examination (p = 0.0001). Multivariate analysis showed that preoperative serum PSA, Stage and V/LI were independent predictors of PSA recurrence. Patients with pT2 disease without V/LI had a biochemical recurrence-free survival of 99 vs. 31% in patients with V/LI (p = 0.0001).
CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that V/LI is strongly associated with biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy. The routine analysis of V/LI should be considered as a routine evaluation of the radical prostatectomy specimen.