Anatomic considerations in carcinoma of the prostate.

With new techniques for imaging the prostate--transrectal ultrasound, magnetic resonance, computed tomography scanning--careful correlation with pathologic specimens is crucial to establishing the accuracy of interpretation of the image. Serial sections of whole-mount specimens of the prostate removal at radical prostatectomy or autopsy are the gold standard by which any other method of pathologic correlation should be measured. More limited techniques of pathologic correlations, such as biopsy specimens, resulted in some confusion in the literature, particularly in reference to transrectal ultrasound. New techniques of immunohistochemistry, image analysis, flow cytometry, and molecular biology will undoubtedly augment our understanding of the origin, pathogenesis, and prognosis of prostate cancer.