Is it necessary to separate clinical stage T1c from T2 prostate adenocarcinoma?
OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that prostate cancer patients with clinical stage cT1c and cT2 have similar outcomes and clinicopathological features, and should be grouped together. PATIENTS AND METHODS: From a series of men with prostate cancer who had a radical retropubic prostatectomy (RP), we assessed those with cT1c (223) and cT2 (65) adenocarcinoma. All RP specimens were totally embedded and whole-mounted; tumour volume was measured using the grid method. Clinical and pathological characteristics were analysed. RESULTS: Patients with cT2 tumours were more likely to have a higher Gleason score (P = 0.04) and final pathological stage (P = 0.05) than those with cT1c tumours. There was no significant difference in age (P = 0.92), preoperative PSA level (P = 0.17), prostate weight (P = 0.34), tumour volume (P = 0.16), surgical margin status (P = 0.86), multifocality (P = 0.92), the presence of perineural invasion (P = 0.09), or high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (P = 0.