Incidental carcinoma of the prostate at the time of transurethral resection: importance of evaluating every chip.

Incidental adenocarcinoma of the prostate has been divided into stage A1--less than 3 foci of well differentiated adenocarcinoma present and stage A2--3 or more foci of poorly differentiated tumor present. The clinical significance of these 2 stages has been well documented, with stage A1 lesions causing no increased mortality, while up to 30 per cent of patients with clinical stage A2 disease will have positive pelvic lymph nodes at exploration and, thus, will have surgical stage D1 tumor. Most pathology laboratories submit only a fraction of the transurethral resection chips for permanent blocks. In an effort to evaluate the over-all incidence and distribution of stages A1 and A2 lesions were began a prospective study in 1978 whereby all prostatic chips were submitted for permanent sections. A review of 500 consecutive cases of transurethral resection for clinically benign prostates before 1978 revealed 43 cases of adenocarcinoma: 10 (23 per cent) stage A1 and 33 (77 per cent) stage A2. A review of a similar series of 500 consecutive patients since 1978 revealed 71 cases of adenocarcinoma: 17 (24 per cent) clinical stage A1 and 54 (76 per cent) clinical stage A2. Thus, we found that since 178 incidental adenocarcinoma of the prostate has increased by 65 per cent and the distribution of stages A1 and A2 lesions has remained unchanged, 76 per cent of these lesions being clinical stage A2 with its much greater clinical significance. Evaluation of every chip does make a clinically significant difference in the subsequent management of patients with incidental adenocarcinoma of the prostate.