Prevalence of Lymph Node Metastasis in Radical Prostatectomy; A Retrospective and Multicenter Study in Iran

Lymph node (LN) metastasis is considered an important prognostic factor in patients with prostate cancer. The aim of this study was to determine the rate of LN metastasis among an Iranian population who underwent radical prostatectomy (RP) with pelvic LN dissection (PLND). In a retrospective review of medical records, 450 RP cases were included and the data on LN metastasis were extracted from surgical pathology reports. Overall, 4.7% of the patients had LN metastasis. The rate of surgical stage T3 (50% vs. 13.5%; P=0.021) and pathological Gleason score ³7 (82.4% vs. 48.8%; P=0.002) was significantly higher among LN-positive patients. All patients with LN metastasis had a serum prostate specific antigen level > 4 ng/ml. The diagnosis of prostate cancer is in an acceptable, but not ideal, stage of the disease; this may be due to screening examinations and tests.