Death in Patients With Recurrent Prostate Cancer After Radical Prostatectomy: Prostate-Specific Antigen Doubling Time Subgroups and Their Associated Contributions to All-Cause Mortality

Abstract

Purpose Among patients with biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy, we found previously that postoperative prostate-specific antigen doubling time (PSADT) was associated with risk of prostate cancer death. However, given the small number of patients in the highest risk PSADT subgroup, it is unclear which PSADT subgroups contribute the greatest to prostate cancer–specific death and how this influences all-cause mortality. Patients and Methods This study was a retrospective analysis of 379 patients treated with radical prostatectomy between 1982 and 2000 who had a biochemical recurrence and PSADT data available. Mean and median follow-up after surgery was 11.4 (standard deviation, 5.4) and 11.0 years, respectively (range, 1.6 to 23.0 years). Results Shorter PSADT was significantly associated with prostate cancer–specific and all-cause mortality (P < .001). Although patients with a PSADT less than 3 months were at the greatest risk of death, because of the limited number of patients in this group...