[Prognostic factor in patients with prostate cancer].
BACKGROUND
Histological grading, especially the Gleason Score (GS), is considered to be of value in determining the prognosis of patients with prostate cancer. However, subjective histological grading is characterized by low reproducibility. On the other hand, estimate of Mean Nuclear Volume (MNV), which was developed by Gunderson and Jensen based on a sterological technique, is a very easy method with high reproducibility. Furthermore, it had been reported that MNV provides accurate prognosis of bladder cancer. In this study we compared MNV with two histological grading methods in determining the survival of prostate cancer.


METHODS
A retrospective, prognostic study of 49 patients with prostate cancer diagnosed by Transurethral Resection of the Prostate (TUR-P) or Needle punch biopsy between Jan. 1983 and Jul. 1994 was performed. Unbiased estimates of MNV were compared with age at the time of diagnosis, clinical stage, histological grading according to, the general rules for clinical and pathological studies on prostatic cancer of the Japanese Urological Association (J.U.A.) and GS on the prognostic value.


RESULTS
Although age at the time of diagnosis, J.U.A. classification and GS had no value as prognostic criteria, clinical stage (p = 0.0018) and MNV (p = 0.0087) correlated significantly with survival of prostate cancer.


CONCLUSIONS
Results of this study indicate that estimates of MNV and clinical stage are prognostically superior to age at the time of diagnosis and morphologic grading of malignancy, such as J.U.A. classification and GS, in prostate cancer.
Fujikawa
K
K
Department of Urology, Shizuoka City Hospital, Japan.
Aoyama
T
T
Sasaki
M
M
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002452:Cell Count; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D015996:Survival Rate