Int J Med Sci 2020; 17(4):449-456. doi:10.7150/ijms.40958 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Anesthesia and Pain Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
2. Department of Urology and Urological Science Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
3. Department of Policy Research Affairs National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea.
* These authors contributed equally to this work.
Aims: Recurrence after cancer surgery is a major concern in patients with cancer. Growing evidence from preclinical studies has revealed that various anesthetics can influence the immune system in different ways. The current study compared the long-term biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer after robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALP) in terms of selection of anesthetic agent between total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) with propofol/remifentanil and volatile anesthetics (VA) with sevoflurane or desflurane/remifentanil.
Methods: We followed up oncologic outcomes of patients who underwent RALP from two previous prospective randomized controlled trials, and the outcomes of those who received TIVA (n = 64) were compared with those who received VA (n = 64). The follow-up period lasted from November 2010 to March 2019.
Results: Both TIVA and VA groups showed identical biochemical recurrence-free survivals at all-time points after RALP. The following predictive factors of prostate cancer recurrence were determined by Cox regression: colloid input [hazard ratio (HR)=1.002, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.000-1.003; P = 0.011], initial prostate-specific antigen level (HR=1.025, 95% CI: 1.007-1.044; P = 0.006), and pathological tumor stage 3b (HR=4.217, 95% CI:1.207-14.735; P = 0.024), but not the anesthetic agent.
Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that both TIVA with propofol/remifentanil and VA with sevoflurane or desflurane/remifentanil have comparable effects on oncologic outcomes in patients undergoing RALP.
Keywords: Prostate cancer, recurrence, propofol, volatile, anesthesia.