Pathologic Features of Korean Prostate Adenocarcinoma: Mapping Analysis of 83 Cases

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Prostatic adenocarcinoma makes up about 2% of the total cancer incidence and cancer death in Korean men, but the incidence of this malady is continuously increasing. So far, there have been only a few studies describing the pathologic characteristics of the prostatic adenocarcinoma in Korean patients. In this study, we analyzed 83 radical prostatectomy specimens by using mapping analysis to discover the clinico pathologic characteristics of Korean prostatic adenocarcinoma. METHODS: The resected prostates were serially sectioned and embedded for histologic mapping. The clinico pathologic findings, including the Gleason score, tumor size, prostate intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) and tumor invasion to the surrounding tissues, were examined. RESULTS: The mean values were as follows age, 64.1+/-6.6 years; serum prostate specific antigen (sPSA), 16.6+/-16.2 ng/mL; tumor volume, 22.3+/-22.4%; tumor size, 2.2+/-1.2 cm; and Gleason score, 6.9+/-0.9. The rate of high grade PIN was 79.7%. The Gleason score, tumor extent and T stage were statistically correlated (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Some prognostic factors such as sPSA and the Gleason scores showed significantly lower levels compared with those of the previous studies on Korean prostate adenocarcinoma (16-36 ng/mL vs 16.6 ng/mL and 7.3-7.7 vs 6.9, respectively). Although these values are still higher than those of the western studies, this study implies that the early detection of prostate adenocarcinoma is increasing in Korea.