[Detection of circulating prostatic cells with RT-PCR PSA in prostatic cancer].
OBJECTIVE
The detection of circulating prostatic cells by molecular biology techniques (RT-PCR) can be useful in the staging of localized prostate cancer prior to radical prostatectomy in some institutions. After describing their technique, the authors report their results.


METHODS
80 RT-PCR were performed: 32 in a control group (including 11 women free of any neoplastic disease, 11 healthy men, and 10 men with benign prostatic hyperplasia before resection), and 48 in patients with prostate cancer (43 with clinically localized cancer and 5 with metastatic cancer).


RESULTS
In the control group, none of 11 women had a positive RT-PCR, 1 of the healthy men was positive (orchidopexy) and 3 of the 11 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia were positive, but none of them had tumour on the resection chips. None of the 5 metastatic patients were positive. In the patients treated by radical prostatectomy, no correlation was observed between RT-PCR results, pathological stage, positive resection margin status and laboratory progression after radical prostatectomy.


CONCLUSIONS
This PSA RT-PCR technique developed in this institution does not appear to be useful for the molecular staging of prostate cancer. This study demonstrates the difficulty of standardization of this technique which limits its routine use.
de la Taille
A
A
Département d'Urologie, CHU Henri Mondor, Créteil, France.
Salomon
L
L
Colombel
M
M
Abbou
C C
CC
Chopin
D
D
Groux-Muscatelli
B
B
D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity