Radical Retropubic Prostatectomy Versus Conventional External Beam Radiotherapy for Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer

Eligible patients had clinically localized (clinical TNM classification T1 or T2), biopsy-proven adenocarcinoma of the prostate and were randomly treated with RRP or EBRT. Exclusion criteria included prior treatment for prostate cancer, the presence of metastatic disease on imaging studies, the receipt of neoadjuvant androgen ablation before registration, and an inability to read or understand Italian language. The institutional review boards of every participating centre approved the study design. Every patient enrolled signed an informed-consent form approved by the institutional review boards. Clinical information collected from the medical record included pre-treatment serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level, clinical T classification, and biopsy Gleason score. Follow-up assessments were completed before treatment and every 3 months after treatment. Subjects who sought primary treatment elsewhere or did not return follow-up questionnaires beyond the initial assessment were excluded from this analysis.