Objective: Radical prostatectomy is performed in potentially curable prostatic cancers, but surgical indication might somehow depend on the idiosyncrasies of a population. Herein we compare the characteristics of patients undergoing radical prostatectomy in teaching University Hospitals of different countries.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective review on 250 consecutive patients who underwent radical prostatectomy before January 1997 in five teaching University Hospitals in Europe (Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey) and the United States (Detroit, MI). Clinicopathological data were recorded and compared, and a questionnaire investigated whether patient and physician attitudes towards surgery differed.
Results: The number of surgeries per month at each institution ranged from 0.9 to 10 and the proportion of newly diagnosed patients that undergo surgery from 0.14 to 0.36. The Kruskal-Wallis test revealed both median age and preoperative prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels were different between groups. Similarly, despite standardized surgery and histologic work-up, differences in the detection of extracapsular invasion and the rate of detectable PSA after surgery were observed between institutions. Diagnosis in the Swedish and Swiss groups was more often based on digital rectal examination, while the rest were more confident with transrectal ultrasound. Doctors at some institutions were more inclined to recommend radical surgery, either by not mentioning or disapproving other therapeutic strategies. The proportion of patients who said they would elect surgery again ranged from 72% to 92%, and the proportion of doctors who said they would perform surgery again ranged from 78% to 100%. Patients' and doctors' degree of satisfaction with the decision made were also different.
Conclusions: (i) Candidates for radical prostatectomy in teaching hospitals of several countries are different. Might therefore have practical implications on the design of clinical trials and the interpretation of the results of treatment. (ii) Patient and physician acceptance of surgery varies according to countries and is more established firm in those countries where it is more frequently performed.