ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Minerva Urologica e Nefrologica 1999 December;51(4):187-90

Copyright © 2000 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Prostate cancer: correlation between local and systemic disease

Marzi M., Rosi P., Mearini E., Bracarda S., Cesaroni S., Porena M.

From the Urology Clinic University of Perugia

Back­ground. Pros­tate ­cancer is in ­Italian men the ­second neo­plasm for inci­dence. Trans­rectal ultra­so­nog­raphy (­TRUS) is ­still ­today a ­cheap ­test, not ­very inva­sive, ­well ­accepted by the moti­vated ­patient and suf­fi­ciently accu­rate for the val­u­a­tion of the ­local ­status dis­ease. We pro­posed our ­data to ­verify if a ­careful ­local ultra­son­o­graphic ­study of pros­tatic car­ci­noma ­could or not pre­dict its ­systemic ­course.
­Methods. We ­have ­valued 136 out pat­ients ­affected by pros­tate ­cancer and ­treated ­with ­either pal­li­a­tive med­ical ­therapy or radio­therapy. The ­follow-up ­varies ­from 12 to 132 ­months. The ­local, eval­u­a­tion of the dis­ease ­done ­through ­TRUS in lon­gi­tu­dinal and/or ­axial ­scan (the dimen­sion of the ­gland, the ­volume and ultra­son­o­graphic char­ac­ter­is­tics of the ­lesion, cap­sular involve­ment and esti­ma­tion of the sur­rounding struc­tures: sem­inal ves­i­cles, ­vesica, ­rectum).
­Results. In the ­long run, con­sid­ering the ­local and ­systemic ­course of the dis­ease, we ­have ­noticed accor­dance glo­bally in 116 ­patients (85,3%); 13 ­patients ­showed ­only system­atic pro­gres­sion (9,5%) ­while in 7 ­patients, we ­have ­noticed a ­local but not a ­systemic vari­a­tion.
Con­clu­sions. We can ­deduce ­that peri­od­ical car­rying-out of the ­TRUS (­twice a ­year) con­sti­tute a reli­able ­index not ­only of ­local pro­ce­dure of the pt. but ­also pre­dicting the ­systemic ­course of the dis­ease, ­making the rou­tine car­rying out of the ­other ­check-up unnec­es­sary, ­that ­could be ­reserved for ­cases ­with pre­cise clin­ical indi­ca­tion.