Validity of primary care patient self-report of abnormal (but not cancer) prostate biopsy results.
OBJECTIVE
We assessed the validity of patient self-report of abnormal (but not cancer) prostate biopsy results, ie, atypical cells or prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia.


METHODS
We compared survey responses and pathology records for 156 men from a multicenter, prospective cohort study, which was designed to evaluate the impact of a suspicious prostate cancer screening test followed by benign prostate biopsy.


RESULTS
Of the 156 subjects 45 (29%) reported having had atypical cells or prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia and 38 (24%) had a pathology report with atypia or prostate intraepithelial neoplasia. The sensitivity of the self-report was 87%, specificity was 90%, positive predictive value was 73% and negative predictive value was 95%. The kappa statistic was 0.7.


CONCLUSIONS
Men in this study reported this complex result accurately. However, it was concerning that 5 men (13%) appeared unaware of an abnormal prostate biopsy result, especially given the substantial residual risk of prostate cancer conferred by this result.
McNaughton-Collins
Mary
M
General Medicine Division, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. mmcnaughtoncollins@partners.org
Barry
Michael J
MJ
Caubet
Jean-Francois
JF
Bates
David W
DW
Lee
Jeong Min
JM
Hauser
Alison
A
Fowler
Floyd J
FJ
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001706:Biopsy; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011467:Prostate / Q000473:pathology*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012650:Self Disclosure; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires