As a pathologist, I am most interested in prognosis based findings from

biopsies and prostatectomy specimens, and the articles in my files reflect

that interest. Most of the recent literature dealing with this follows

biochemical recurrence rather than survival (longevity). The best article

on recurrence following RP is one from my alma mater, Hopkins and occurs in

the American Journal of Surgical Pathology 20(3):286-292,1996. Handicapping

survival based on RP-related findings is examined by Schellhammer (Urology

31:191-197,1988), Krongrad (JAMA 278:44-46,1997), and Bauer (Cancer

79:952-962,1997) among others. It is difficult to look at survival because

different treatments are typically undertaken following recurrence or

appearance of mets, and these interventions muck up the results (This is

good for patients since hormonal intervention increases longetivity, but it

is bad for scientists trying to studying the effect of various prognostic factors on survival).