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Objective To investigate clinical factors associated to lymphnodal metastasis load in patients who underwent to radical prostatectomy (RP) and extended pelvic lymph node dissection (ePLND). Materials and methods Between November 2014 and December 2019, ET was measured in 617 consecutive patients not under androgen deprivation therapy who underwent RP and ePLND. Lymphnode invasion (LNI) was codified as not present (N = 0) or with one (N = 1) or more than one metastatic node (N > 1). The risk of multiple pelvic lymph node metastasis (N > 1, mPLNM) was assessed by comparing it to the other two groups (N > 1 vs. N = 0 and N > 1 vs. N = 1). Then, we assessed the association between ET and lymphnode invasion for standard predictors, such as PSA, percentage of biopsy positive cores (BPC), tumor stage greater than 1 (cT > 1) and tumor grade group greater than two (ISUP > 2). Results Overall, LNI was detected in 70 patients (11.3%) of whom 39 (6.3%) with N = 1 and 31 (5%) with N > 1. On multivariate analysis, ET was inversely associated with the risk of N > 1 when compared to both N = 0 (odds ratio, OR 0.997; CI 0.994–1; p = 0.027) as well as with N = 1 cases (OR 0.994; 95% CI 0.989–1.000; p = 0.015). Conclusions In clinical PCa, the risk of mPLNM was increased by low ET levels. As ET decreased, patients had an increased likelihood of mPLNM. Because of the inverse association between ET and mPLNM, higher ET levels were protective against aggressive disease. The influence of locally advanced PCa with high metastatic load on ET levels needs to be explored by controlled trials.

Objective To test the hypothesis that endogenous testosterone (ET) density could be associated with tumor load (TL) in patients with intermediate risk (IR) prostate cancer (PCa). Materials and methods Endogenous testosterone density (ETD, ratio between ET and prostate volume [PV]), biopsy positive cores density (BPCD, the ratio between the number of positive cores and PV) and prostate-specific antigen density (PSAD, ratio between total PSA and PV) were retrospectively evaluated on a prospectively collected data on 430 patients with IR PCa submitted to radical prostatectomy (RP). Tumor load (TL) was measured as the percentage of prostatic volume occupied by cancer at final pathology. Unfavorable disease (UD) was defined as tumor upgrading (ISUP grading group 4, 5) and/or upstaging (pT3a or 3b) in prostate specimens. Associations were assessed by the logistic regression and linear regression models. Results Overall, UD, which was detected in 122 out of 430 IR patients (28.4%), was predicted by BPCD (odd ratio, OR = 1.356; 95% CI 1.048–1.754; p = 0.020) with a sensitivity 98.4% and overall accuracy 71.9%. On multivariate analysis, BPCD was independently predicted by PSAD (regression coefficient, b = 1.549; 95% CI 0.936–2.162; p < 0.0001), ETD (b = 0.032; 95% CI 0.023–0.040; p < 0.0001) and TL (b = 0.009; 95% CI 0.005–0.014; p < 0.0001). As BPCD increased, ETD and ET levels increased accordingly, but patients with BPCD > 1.0%/mL had significantly lower ET levels. Conclusions As ETD increased, BPCD and TL increased, accordingly; furthermore, patients with lower ET levels were more likely to have occult UD. The influence of tumor load, and unfavorable disease on ET and ETD needs to be addressed by further studies.