Abstract Background Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening more frequently detects early stage prostate cancer (PC). However, adverse pathologic features (APFs) after radical prostatectomy (RP) in low-risk PC occur. Previous related studies had utilized outdated staging criteria or small sample cohorts. In this study, we analyzed predictors of APFs after RP in low-risk PC using classification under the current criteria. Materials and methods We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 546 low-risk PC patients who had undergone RP. Low-risk PC was defined as PC with clinical T1–T2a, Gleason score ≤ 6, and PSA levels 4.5 ng/mL and number of positive cores > 2 in low-risk PC were significantly associated with APFs, and suggested as cut-off values for predicting APFs. Conclusions PSA > 4.5 ng/mL and number of positive cores > 2 in low-risk PC were associated with presence of APFs and patients with such records should be considered carefully to provide active surveillance.
