Radical perineal prostatectomy for clinical stage B2 carcinoma of the prostate

To define the criteria for radical surgery in clinical stage B2 prostatic cancer a retrospective study was made of 53 patients who underwent radical perineal prostatectomy between 1951 and 1963. The 15-year survival free of tumor was 25 per cent, significantly less than the 51 per cent survival rate in a series of patients with clinical B1 disease undergoing radical perineal prostatectomy during the same period. Sixty-six per cent of the patients had extraprostatic extension of tumor on histological examination. The 15-year survival free of tumor in these patients was only 13 per cent, whereas those patients with tumor histologically confined to the prostate had a 15-year survival rate of 50 per cent, equal to an age-matched control population. Thus, although prolonged survival was demonstrated in patients without extraprostatic extension only a third of all clinical B2 cases were in this favorable category. Consequently, until improved reliable techniques for detection of extra-prostatic extension become available it seems unwise to recommend radical prostatectomy as the treatment of choice for all men with clinical stage B2 disease.