["Evanescent" prostate carcinoma]

Abstract

Occurrence of prostatectomy sections with minimum or no tumour volume have been increasingly seen over the last few years in spite of a preoperative histology-based diagnosis of adenocarcinoma with a needle biopsy ("evanescent cancer phenomenon" ECP). Our group has reviewed 145 prostatectomies performed in our hospital between January 1988 and October 1997, and found 3 cases of ECP (2%). To explain this phenomenon patients must be divided into two groups. In those who receive preoperative hormonal blockade, treatment may result in a drastic reduction of tumoral volume as well as microscopic changes that make malignancy recognition more difficult. ECP occurs in less than 5% of these prostatectomies. In patients with no previous hormonal treatment, ECP is extremely rare and any explanation comes as a consequence of the extended use of screening methods that lead to the detection of very small tumours, probably of little clinical relevance, that are found in the needle biopsy. Subsequently, however, no residual neoplasia is seen in the section either due to technical limitations of the pathoanatomical methods or because of a true, complete ablation of the lesion through the biopsy.