A total of 519 patients with clinical stage B disease underwent radical prostatectomy from 1966 to 1981: 65 (12.5 per cent) had pathologic stage D1, 72 (14.0 per cent) pathologic stage C and 382 (73.5 per cent) pathologic stage B disease. Of the 519 patients 320 with pathologic stage B1 (239) or B2 (81) adenocarcinoma of the prostate and no prior hormonal or radiation therapy underwent complete pelvic lymphadenectomy and radical retropubic prostatectomy. Stage, grade and size of tumor were associated significantly with interval to disease progression but not with survival. The probable explanation for this observation is that only 2 per cent of 186 patients who were followed for 5 years and 2 per cent of 46 who were followed for 10 years died of prostatic carcinoma within these intervals. The over-all survival of patients who had intracapsular prostatic carcinoma was not different from that of an age-matched surgical control group (men undergoing total hip arthroplasty during the same interval). These observations suggest that although morbidity from alternative therapies may vary no other treatment modality offers survival superior to that observed for pelvic lymphadenectomy and radical retropubic prostatectomy in patients with pathologic intracapsular prostatic cancer.