Transrectal ultrasound in stage A1 prostate carcinoma.

Transrectal ultrasound of the prostate was employed on 6 patients found to have Stage A1 carcinoma of the prostate after transurethral resection in order to identify those patients with residual tumor. Two patients were found to have residual tumor by transrectal ultrasound; this was confirmed by ultrasonic guided biopsy of the prostate. Of the remaining patients, an additional 2 on whom the ultrasound did not detect the tumor had tumor less than 1 cm in size, and in 1 patient no residual disease was found in the pathologic specimen. We conclude that ultrasound of the prostate offers another dimension in the staging of patients with Stage A1 carcinoma of the prostate.