Purpose: This study aimed at exploring whether the time interval (TI) between prostate biopsy and surgery affect the outcomes of radical prostatectomy (RP).
Methods: A comprehensive search of the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases was conducted to identify all eligible studies. After quality assessment and date extraction, a systematic review and meta-analysis was performed.
Results: A total of 9 studies with 8579 patients were included in our meta-analysis. Pooled data showed no significant differences between groups of TI ≤ 2 weeks and > 2 weeks in operative time, estimated blood loss, transfusion rate, bilateral nerve preservation, positively surgical margin, and complications. For comparison between TI ≤ 4 and > 4 weeks, shorter TI would be associated with significantly less estimated blood loss (p = 0.045) and lower rate of bilateral nerve preservation (p = 0.002). In addition, for TI ≤ 6 versus > 6 weeks, significantly less bilateral nerve preservation (p = 0.025) and more positive surgical margin (p = 0.020) could be found in the earlier surgery group. Sensitivity analysis indicated that TI had no impact on any outcomes of robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALP).
Conclusions: As shorter TI was associated with lower rate of bilateral nerve preservation and higher rate of positive surgical margin, it would be better to perform RP with a TI of 4 or 6 weeks after biopsy. While for RALP, shorter TI did not have any impact on outcomes of RALP, It is feasible and safe to perform RALP within 2, 4, or 6 weeks.
Keywords: Biopsy; Meta-analysis; Prostate cancer; Prostatectomy; Time interval.