• Gregory S Merrick, Wayne M Butler, Robert W Galbreath, Jonathan H Lief, and Edward Adamovich.
• Schiffler Cancer Center, Wheeling Hospital, Wheeling, West Virginia 26003-6300, USA.
• Urology. 2002 Jul 1; 60 (1): 98-103.

ObjectivesTo determine the effect of the dominant pattern in Gleason score 7 histologic findings on biochemical no evidence of disease survival for hormone-naive patients undergoing permanent prostate brachytherapy.MethodsA total of 114 hormone-naive patients with Gleason score 7 histologic findings underwent transperineal ultrasound-guided permanent prostate brachytherapy for clinical T1c-T3a NxM0 adenocarcinoma of the prostate gland from April 1995 to October 1999. No patient was lost to follow-up. No patient underwent seminal vesicle biopsy or pathologic lymph node staging. Sixty-four patients were diagnosed with Gleason score 3+4 and 50 with Gleason score 4+3 prostate cancer. Twenty-one patients were implanted with either palladium 103 or iodine 125 monotherapy, and 93 patients received supplemental external beam radiotherapy with a brachytherapy boost. The median patient age was 69 years (range 49 to 79). The median follow-up was 46.4 months (range 20 to 80). The American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology consensus definition was used to determine the biochemical disease-free survival.ResultsThe actuarial 5-year biochemical disease-free survival rate was 90.3%. No statistically significant difference in outcome was found when stratified by the dominant pattern in Gleason score 7 histologic features (89.4% versus 91.5% for 3+4 and 4+3, respectively, P = 0.700). The biochemical no evidence of disease survival analysis in terms of the Gleason cohorts revealed no difference in terms of the choice of isotope, use of supplemental external beam radiotherapy, or preimplant prostate-specific antigen level. The median and mean postimplant prostate-specific antigen level was less than 0.1 ng/mL and 0.12 +/- 0.20 ng/mL, respectively, without a significant difference between Gleason score 3+4 and 4+3.ConclusionsOur results indicate that the 5-year biochemical outcome with a hormone-naive prostate brachytherapy approach that uses multiple periprostatic seeds is not dependent on Gleason score 3+4 versus 4+3 histologic features.

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