The treatment of patients with adenocarcinoma of the prostate is based on the tumor stage and grade. For this reason the interpretation of the biopsy especimen is crucial and demands a great expertize from its examiner. ln order to define the accuracy of biopsy interpretation we settled the present study, trying to correlate the relationship between the histological grade of the biopsy especimens and the definitive pathological report read by the same pathologist. One hundred and twenty patients with localized prostate cancer stages TI - T3a submitted to radical prostatectomy were evaluated. The histological grade of the tumor was defined using the Gleason score sistem and a correlation was made between the score of biopsy and the surgical especimens. Complete agreement of the Gleason score was seen in 39 patients (32,5%) and if 1 digit discordance (± 1 Gleason score) was not considered, agreement was seen in 81 patients (67,5%). Seventy five tumors (62,5%) were undergraded and the rate of discordance was more common in patients with grade 2 to 4 tumors. According to our date, we conclude that the histological evaluation of the biopsy especimen in prostate cancer tends to underevaluate the true Gleason score of the tumor.
Prostate cancer; Prostate biopsy; Gleason score