Surgical and oncological outcomes in patients with a preoperative PSA value <4 ng/ml undergoing robot-assisted radical prostatectomy.

Background: The objective of this study was to assess the surgical and oncological outcomes in patients with a preoperative prostate specific antigen (PSA) value 7 in 9.5% vs. 3.5% (p<0.001). Organ-confined disease was noted in 73.5% vs. 86.3% (p<0.05), extraprostatic extension in 25.2% vs. 13.7% (p<0.05). The percentage of cancer found in the prostate specimen was 16.1% (1-99%) vs. 7.3% (1-96%) (p<0.05) and a positive surgical margin status was encountered in 8.9% vs. 4.7% (p<0.05) of patients. Pelvic lymph node dissection was performed in 1623 patients (81.2%) of the overall cohort out of whom 64 cases (3.2%) were positive for metastasis. In the patient cohort of PSA value <4 ng/ml, pelvic lymph node dissection was performed in 114 patients (67.4%), out of which one case (0.5%) was positive for metastasis (p<0.05). After a median follow-up of 24.2 months (range 3-56 months), 162 patients (95.8%) were free of biochemical progression and no disease-specific mortality was evident. Conclusion: RARP in patients with a preoperative PSA value <4 ng/ml is a safe surgical procedure with limited complications and excellent