title: Yield of cancer tissue from prostatic needle biopsy.
abstract: This study concerns the quality of human prostatic cancer needle biopsy specimens for routine diagnosis and for bioassay. We examined routine hematoxylin and eosin-stained microscopic sections from 20 prostatic cancer patients, 159 needle cores in all, 71 positive for tumor. Linear core measurements were made with a calibrated ocular micrometer, each segment counted positive if it contained any tumor. Among all subjects there were 35.5 cm of tumor-bearing core length, 26 per cent of the total core length but 60 per cent of the length if completely negative cores were excluded. From these data we calculate a 91 per cent probability of detecting any cancer present if at least 4 cores are taken.
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology*; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011336:Probability; D011467:Prostate / Q000473:pathology*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*