Prevalence of latent prostate carcinoma in two U.S. populations.

The prevalence of latent prostate carcinoma, the suspected precursor of invasive carcinoma, was studied in 500 autopsy specimens from New Orleans, Louisiana, and found to be similar in both whites and blacks. The tumors were subdivided into latent infiltrative type (LIT) and latent noninfiltrative type tumor was measured by photographic techniques. A good correlation between size and histology was found: The mean size of LIT tumors was significanty greater than that of LNT tumors. Age-versus-size plots revealed a subset of large LIT lesions in blacks that was not found among whites of the same ages. This subset may account for the excess of invasive carcinomas in blacks. These results suggest that many latent carcinomas lack promotional stimuli to become invasive.