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Pathological and clinical characteristics of large prostate cancers predominantly located in the transition zone

Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases volume 5, pages 279–284 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Prostate carcinomas located in the transition zone are suspected to behave differently from the more frequent peripheral zone cancers. In this study, large transition zone prostate cancers were investigated for pathological and clinical features. From 365 consecutive radical prostatectomy specimens, 73 cases were disclosed with tumours larger than 10 cm3. Of these, 14 were predominantly (>70% tumour area) located in the transition zone. Pathological investigations included a complete histological work-up, immunohistochemistry for p53 and bcl-2, and interphase cytogenetics for chromosomes 7, 8, 17, and X. Despite large tumour volumes and high preoperative prostate specific antigen (PSA)-values, most tumours showed quite favourable pathological features. Only two of these patients suffered from a postoperative PSA-recurrence during a median follow-up of 50 months. For comparison, 36 cases that contained tumours predominantly located in the peripheral zone mostly displayed adverse prognostic signs and 68.8% of these patients suffered from postoperative PSA-recurrence. We conclude that the peculiar pathological and clinical characteristics of large prostate cancers in the transition zone might be important for prognostic considerations.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to H Huland. The authors thank Cornelia Ebisch for technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Pathology, University of Hamburg, Germany

    A Erbersdobler & S Huhle

  2. Department of Urology, University of Hamburg, Germany

    J Palisaar, M Graefen, P Hammerer, J Noldus & H Huland

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  1. A Erbersdobler
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  2. S Huhle
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  6. J Noldus
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  7. H Huland
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Correspondence to A Erbersdobler.

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Erbersdobler, A., Huhle, S., Palisaar, J. et al. Pathological and clinical characteristics of large prostate cancers predominantly located in the transition zone. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis 5, 279–284 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.pcan.4500602

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