Treatment of localized prostate cancer

Objective: Discussed is the clinical use of radical prostatectomy in patients with clinically localized prostate cancer regarding outcome, quality of life, and morbidity based on own data and results of the literature. Methods: A review of the currently available literature was performed. Moreover, data of 1755 patients who underwent radical retropubic prostatectomy between 1992 and 2001 at our institution were analyzed in uni- and multivariate analyses and included. Results: 5-year disease-specific survival of about 80% is reported. Pathologic stage and the Gleason score are the most influencing factors on postoperative outcome. Continence rates of about 90% are common; nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy seemed to have a protecting factor on continence. Rates of erection depend on the extent of nerve sparing and achieve up to 90% after bilateral nerve sparing. 30-day perioperative morbidity decreased to less than 5% in mayor series with a mortality rate of nil. Conclusions: Selecting the right patient with clinically localized disease, radical prostatectomy showed excellent data on long-term follow-up. Due to respectful understanding of anatomical structures and improvements in surgical techniques, morbidity of the operation decreased and with the nerve-sparing technique quality of life increased.