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Prostate specimen reevaluation in patients with organ confined prostate cancer and postoperative biological
V Ravery1, A De la Taille, M Toublanc
1Department of Urology, CHU Bichat-Claude Bernard, Paris, France.
Purpose:
We evaluated whether detectable levels of prostate specific antigen after radical prostatectomy for stage P2 disease are associated with unconfined cancer overlooked at pathological examination.
Materials And Methods:
Among 129 patients with stages T1 and T2 prostate cancer treated with radical prostatectomy 60 had stage P2 disease. The initial slides from the 7 patients with biological failure were carefully reviewed and, if necessary, the embedded blocks were sectioned every 2 mm.
Results:
The disease was upstaged histologically from P2 to P3 in 6 of 7 patients by reinspecting the initial slides (3) and examining new slides (3).
Conclusions:
A postoperative detectable prostate specific antigen level in cases of stage P2 cancer reflects the presence of unconfined disease that may be overlooked by histopathological examination.