Simon ROBINSON
Wexham park Hospital Slough, UK
Estimation of prostate cancer volume on biopsy does not correlate
with final pathological tumour volume.
Estimates of cancer burden, in terms of bulk, are often made on
biopsy samples sometimes supplemented by MRI estimation.
We compared the number of cores involved on transrectal
ultrasound guided biopsy of the prostate and compared them
to the final prostate tumour estimate found on pathological
examination post radical prostatectomy.
There was no correlation between number of samples positive
for tumour and final tumour bulk.
This appears not to be a reliable estimate of tumour bulk and
therefore management decisions are subject to greater difficulties