Purpose: We determined the incidence of treatment for urethral stricture, including bladder neck contracture, after primary treatment for clinically localized prostate cancer.
Materials and methods: A total of 6,597 men with newly diagnosed, localized prostate cancer and no history of urethral stricture disease were identified in the CaPSURE database. Treatment modalities included radical prostatectomy, external beam radiotherapy, brachytherapy, cryotherapy, androgen deprivation therapy, radical prostatectomy plus external beam radiotherapy, brachytherapy plus external beam radiotherapy and watchful waiting. The database was queried for patient reported history or International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision/Common Procedural Terminology codes consistent with stricture treatment after prostate cancer therapy. Time to obstruction was examined by the Kaplan-Meier method. Risk factors for stricture were examined in a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model.
Results: The incidence of stricture treatment was 344 of 6,597 cases (5.2%, range 1.1% to 8.4% by prostate cancer treatment type). Median followup was 2.7 years. In the multivariate model primary treatment type (p <0.0001), body mass index (p <0.0001) and age (p = 0.0002) were significant predictors of stricture treatment. After controlling for age and body mass index the HR for treatments compared to watchful waiting was significantly higher for radical prostatectomy (HR = 10.4, p <0.0001) and brachytherapy plus external beam radiotherapy (HR = 4.6, p = 0.0231). After radical prostatectomy most failures occurred within the first 6 months and failures were rare after 24 months, whereas after radiation failures occurred later.
Conclusions: The risk of urethral stricture treatment after prostate cancer therapy is 1.1% to 8.4% depending on cancer treatment type. Risk was highest after radical prostatectomy or brachytherapy plus external beam radiotherapy and in those with advanced age or obesity. Stricture after radical prostatectomy occurred within the first 24 months, whereas onset was delayed after radiation.