Broxuridine Plus Surgery in Treating Patients With Stage I or Stage II Prostate Cancer

OBJECTIVES: I. Measure the potential doubling times of multifocal adenocarcinomas of the prostate using broxuridine. II. Determine whether the doubling times of multifocal carcinomas occurring within a single prostate are consistent with a model in which low-volume carcinomas have slow doubling times and high-volume carcinomas have fast doubling times. OUTLINE: Patients receive broxuridine IV over 30 minutes on day -1. Approximately 12-96 hours later, patients undergo surgery to remove the prostate. Tumor tissue is examined by immunostaining for the presence of broxuridine to determine doubling times of the tumor.