Unusual presentations of prostate cancer: A review and case reports

To report our institutional experience with some rare presentations of prostate cancer, as prostate cancer is a common problem and affects a large group of men during their lifetime, but a few studies report unusual presentations of metastatic prostate cancer.

All possible clinical and pathological data were collected for six relevant patients with prostate cancer and unusual metastases who were identified at our institution. PubMed was searched for unusual presentations of prostate cancer in the last 20 years (1982-2012) and all relevant publications were assessed. The authors discussed the reports and selected those articles of major clinical significance to include in a review.

We identified 19 reports of major clinical significance and reviewed them. As in the cases from our institution, supraclavicular lymphadenopathy, isolated upper ureteric obstruction and severe obstructing constipation were some of the rare presentations encountered at other institutions, and reported mostly as sporadic case-reports.

Prostate cancer should be always considered in the differential diagnosis of elderly men presenting with supraclavicular lymphadenopathy, hydroureteronephrosis or constipation, even in the presence of a normal digital rectal examination and low serum total prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. PSA immunohistochemical staining should be used in doubtful cases.