[Prostatic metastases as a differential diagnostic problem]

Systematic investigation of the prostate in 450 autopsies of men ages 40 to 80 years demonstrated metastases to the prostate in 13 cases. These represent 2.9 per cent of all autopsied men in this age group and 6.3 per cent of those with malignant neoplasms in this cohort. 10 of the 13 had metastases from bronchial carcinomas. In 5 cases both metastatic disease and latent prostatic carcinoma were simultaneously present. This demonstrates that when refined methods of examination are used metastases to the prostate are not rare. Thus one must consider them in the differential diagnosis of biopsy specimens of prostatic cancers.