The Newer the Better? Comparison of the 1997 and 2001 Partin Tables for Pathologic Stage Prediction of Prostate Cancer in China

ObjectivesThe use of the Partin tables for pathologic stage prediction of prostate cancer in China has 2 problems. First, the validity of such U.S.-derived predictive tools has not been tested in China. Second, because an updated version of the Partin tables created using a more contemporary cohort was introduced in 2001, it is important to determine whether this renewed version (2001 Partin tables) is superior to the old version (1997 Partin tables). To investigate these problems, we compared these 2 predictive tools for their ability to predict the pathologic stage in Chinese patients.MethodsFrom June 2001 to May 2007, 271 consecutive patients who met the inclusion criteria for Partin table prediction and underwent radical prostatectomy for clinically localized prostate cancer at a single center were evaluated. The predictive accuracy of the 1997 Partin tables and 2001 Partin tables were assessed using receiver operating characteristics analysis.ResultsFor the 1997 Partin tables, the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve for the prediction of organ-confined disease, established capsular penetration, seminal vesicle involvement, and lymph node involvement was 0.723, 0.674, 0.749, and 0.781, respectively. The corresponding values for the 2001 Partin tables were consistently low at 0.604, 0.539, 0.654, and 0.631.ConclusionsThe results of our study have confirmed good predictive accuracy for the 1997 Partin tables for Chinese patients, but not for their updated 2001 version.