The pathology of unusual subtypes of prostate cancer

There are some current literatures describing the morphologic change of prostate carcinoma variants. Some subtypes do not respond to hormone deprivation therapy, for example adenosquamous and squamous cell carcinoma (SQCC), basaloid and adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC), small cell carcinoma (SmCC), sarcomatoid carcinoma, urothelial carcinoma; some are defined in special Gleason grade, some develop different prognosis. So, it is very important to identify these rare subtypes to avoid misdiagnosis. In this review, we aim to describe the typical clinicopathological features of the rare variants of prostate cancer, including prostate acinar adenocarcinoma morphologic variants.