[Immunohistochemical diagnosis of metastasizing prostatic carcinomas]

Metastases of 47 known prostatic carcinomas were subjected to the unlabelled immunoperoxidase-procedure to localise prostaticacid-phosphatase (PAP) and prostatic-specific antigen (PSA). In bone-marrow, lymph-node, lung and liver metastases PAP was found in 64% and PSA in 78%. There was no significant difference between the intensity of staining in primary and metastatic neoplasm. In poorly differentiated metastases of prostatic adenocarcinomas less intense staining for PAP and PSA was found. The data suggest that the demonstration of PAP and PSA is a practical and sensitive test for the prostatic origin of a clinically and histologically unclassifiable metastasis.