The value of bone scans to predict survival time in patients with diagnosed prostate cancer: single-center retrospective study

Objective: In this study, we investigated the significance of the bone scan results as a prognostic factor to predict survival by comparing age, serum PSA level, and Gleason score. Methods: Medical records of 313 patients were retrospectively examined. 265 patients of 313 were included in the study. Results: 202 (76%) patients of 265 were still alive and 63 (24%) patients of 265 were dead because of prostate cancer. Patients’ mean estimated survival times for those with, without, and suspected bone metastases were 47.4 ± 5.4 months, 159.1 ± 8.6 months, and 71.1 ± 14.4 months, respectively (p = 0.0001). While the mean estimated survival time of < 70 years patients old was 137.1 ± 9.4 months, the mean estimated survival time of ≥ 70 years old patients was 78.2 ± 5.0 (p = 0.031). 243 patients with known PSA values, of those whose PSA levels were < 10 ng/ml, between 10-20 ng/ml, between > 20-50 ng/ml, and > 50 ng/ml, the estimated mean survival time was 106.9 ± 4.2 months, 118.1 ± 14.8 months, 87.6 ± 7.4 months and 51.7 ± 6.2 month, respectively and a significant difference was determined (p = 0.0001). For patients whose Gleason scores were < 7, 7,and >7, the mean estimated survival time was 167.5 ± 10.8 months), 86.8 ± 5.5 months, and 61.0 ± 5.4 months, respectively, and a significant difference was determined (p = 0.0001). Conclusion: We identified that the estimated mean survival time of the patients who had bone metastases, had a high level of PSA, had a high level of Gleason score, and were older than 70 years old was shorter than other groups. We concluded the most important prognostic factor affecting survival time independently was the finding of metastasis detected in bone scintigraphy

An Independent Validation of 2010 Tumor-Node-Metastasis Classification for Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Multi-center Study by the Urooncology Association of Turkey Renal Cancer-Study Group

Objective: The American Joint Committee on Cancer tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) classification has been updated by the 7th edition in 2010. The objective of the study was to evaluate cancer-specific survival (CSS) in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and assess the concordance of 2002 and novel 2010 TNM primary tumor classifications. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis of RCC registries from 25 institutions of the Urooncology Association of Turkey Renal CancerStudy Group was performed. Patients with RCC had a radical or partial nephrectomy. The database consisted of 1889 patients. Results: Median follow-up time was 25 months (interquartile range: 11.2-47.8). The 5-year CSS rate for pT1a, pT1b, pT2a, pT2b, pT3a and pT4 tumors were 97% [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.93-0.99], 94% (95% CI: 0.91-0.97), 88% (95% CI: 0.81-0.93), 77% (95% CI: 0.64-0.86) 74% (95% CI: 0.65-0.81) and 66% (95% CI: 0.51-0.77), respectively according to the 2010 TNM classification (p<0.001). CSS comparisons between pT1a-pT1b (p=0.022), pT1b-pT2a (p=0.030), pT3a-pT3b (p<0.001) and pT3b-pT4 (p=0.020) were statistically significant. Conversely, pT2a-pT2b (p=0.070) and pT2b-pT3a (p=0.314) were not statistically significant. Multivariable analyses revealed the pT stage in the 2010 TNM classification as an independent prognostic factor for CSS (p for trend=0.002). C-indexes for 2002 and 2010 TNM classifications were 0.8683 and 0.8706, respectively. Conclusion: Subdividing pT2 does not have a CSS advantage. Moving adrenal involvement to pT4 yielded a more accurate prognosis prediction. T stage and LNI are independent prognostic factors for CSS in RCC. Overall, the novel 2010 TNM classification is slightly improved over the former one. However, shown by C-index values, this improvement is not sufficient to state that 2010 TNM outperforms the 2002 TNM