Presence or absence of a positive pathological margin outperforms any other margin-associated variable in predicting clinically relevant biochemical recurrence in Gleason 7 prostate cancer

What s known on the subject? and What does the study add? The presence of a positive pathological margin is an independent risk factor for clinically significant disease recurrence only in intermediate-risk disease when the a priori risk of micrometastatic disease is accounted for. The study examines patients with Gleason 7 prostate cancer to assess the relative importance of various margin-related variables (focality, linear length, tumour grade at margin, presence of diathermy artifact and plane of tumour) with regard to biochemical recurrence. We found that the presence or absence of a positive pathological margin outperforms any other margin-associated variable in predicting significant disease recurrence. Objective To determine the influence of pathological margin variables on the risk of clinically significant biochemical recurrence in Gleason 7 prostate cancer.