RATIONALE: Broxuridine may help doctors determine the rate of growth of prostate tumors and help them plan effective treatment.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of broxuridine in treating patients who are undergoing surgery for stage I or stage II prostate cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

• Measure the potential doubling times of multifocal adenocarcinomas of the prostate using broxuridine.
• Determine whether the doubling times of multifocal carcinomas occurring within a single prostate are consistent with a model in which low-volume carcinomas have slow doubling times and high-volume carcinomas have fast doubling times.

OUTLINE: Patients receive broxuridine IV over 30 minutes on day -1. Approximately 12-96 hours later, patients undergo surgery to remove the prostate.

Tumor tissue is examined by immunostaining for the presence of broxuridine to determine doubling times of the tumor.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 75 patients will be accrued for this study.

• Drug: bromodeoxyuridine
• Other: fluorescent antibody technique
• Procedure: conventional surgery

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of stage I or II (T1-2) carcinoma of the prostate

  • PSA greater than 8 ng/mL AND
  • Abnormal findings on digital rectal examination
• Eligible for radical prostatectomy

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

• Not specified

Performance status:

• ECOG 0 or 1

Life expectancy:

• Not specified

Hematopoietic:

• Not specified

Hepatic:

• Not specified

Renal:

• Not specified

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

• No prior biologic therapy

Chemotherapy:

• No prior chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

• No prior neoadjuvant hormonal therapy

Radiotherapy:

• No prior radiotherapy

Surgery:

• See Disease Characteristics

Other:

• No prior therapy that would affect tumor growth rates or volume