Prostate Cancer Upgrading and Adverse Pathology in Hispanic Men Undergoing Radical Prostatectomy - Beyond the Abstract

Outcomes for prostate cancer in Hispanic populations in the United States have been studied less extensively compared with other ethnic groups, despite them being the largest ethnic minority in the United States. Our retrospective study included a single-institution cohort of Hispanic patients who underwent radical prostatectomy (RP) from the University of Miami to analyze differences in upgrading and adverse pathology between Hispanic white, non-Hispanic White, and Black men.


We did not see differences in the odds of upgrading between Hispanic and non-Hispanic men. Our findings indicate that, as expected, upgrading was associated with shorter biochemical recurrence (BCR)-free survival. However, after controlling for patient characteristics, upgrading, and pathologic features, race/ethnicity was not found to be a significant predictor of BCR-free survival.

The Hispanic population in the United States is heterogenous and consists of various racial and cultural backgrounds. The Hispanic population in South Florida is primarily of Cuban descent and is not captured in the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, from which many Hispanic prostate cancer outcome studies are based. Thus, our research provides valuable insight into a group of men often understudied in the United States and adds to the understanding of prostate cancer outcomes in this population. Also, compared with SEER, which has limited pathological and clinical data, our study incorporated granular clinical information as well as detailed pathological review from a single uropathologist. For this disease state and our question, the importance of having centralized pathology review cannot be overstated. Moreover, our study was the largest single-institution cohort of Hispanic patients undergoing radical prostatectomy with 1,877 patients.

The lack of difference in upgrading between Hispanic and non-Hispanic patients is important. Our goal was to characterize pathological findings between races to look for potential disparities in our population. We were reassured to find no significant difference. This information is also useful for clinicians when counseling Hispanic patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer.

Written by: Jamie Thomas, Helen Y. Hougen, Oleksii A. Iakymenko, Sanoj Punnen, Chad R. Ritch, Bruno Nahar, Dipen J. Parekh, Oleksandr N. Kryvenko, Mark L. Gonzalgo 



Desai Sethi Urology Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine,  Miami, FL, USA., Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA., Desai Sethi Urology Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA.

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