To compare the long-term differences in actuarial biochemical relapse-free survival rates from a contemporary series of patients who underwent radical prostatectomy with and without pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND).

The records of 806 consecutive radical prostatectomy cases performed from January 1995 to June 1999 were reviewed. The entire subset of patients (n = 336) with low-risk disease, defined by a prostate-specific antigen level of 10 ng/mL or less, biopsy Gleason score of 6 or less, and clinical Stage T1 or T2a, who had not received adjuvant or neoadjuvant therapy were divided into two groups according to whether PLND was performed (PLND group, n = 140) or omitted (no-PLND group, n = 196). A Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyze the effect of demographic, pretreatment, surgical, and pathologic factors on the likelihood of biochemical failure. Biochemical relapse-free survival for each group was estimated by Kaplan-Meier analysis. The median prostate-specific antigen follow-up time for the entire group was 89.0 months, with a similar follow-up for both cohorts (PLND group 94.5 months and no-PLND group 88.0 months, Mann-Whitney U test, P = 0.14).

The long-term biochemical relapse-free survival rate for the entire cohort was 86.1% at 10 years. The 10-year actuarial biochemical relapse-free rate for the PLND and no-PLND groups was 83.8% and 87.9%, respectively (log-rank, P = 0.33). On univariate analysis, PLND was not an independent predictor of outcome (Wald, P = 0.33).

The results of our study have shown that the omission of limited PLND in patients with favorable tumor characteristics does not adversely affect biochemical relapse-free survival at 10 years. Such patients can be spared the morbidity and cost of PLND without affecting their chance for cure.