Still a place for the classical systematic sextant technique? Cancer detection rates and complications in 1025 consecutive prostatic biopsies.
OBJECTIVE
To verify if there might still be an indication to the sextant biopsy technique we reviewed the cancer detection rate obtained and the complications encountered during a five years interval, at our hospital.


METHODS
From January 1997 to December 2002 we have submitted to prostatic biopsy a total of 1025 consecutive patients with a clinical suspect of prostate cancer. A total of six cores were obtained in all the patients with an additional core at suspect lesions.


RESULTS
Overall, prostate cancer was present in the biopsies of 444 of 1025 patients giving a detection rate of 43.3%. In patients with serum PSA levels between 4.1 and 10 ng/ml., 169 of 466 biopsies were positive, for a detection rate of 36.3%. An increase in percentage of positivity was observed with increasing decades of age. Overall complication rate was 1.4%.


CONCLUSIONS
In patients older than 70 years, and with PSA levels higher than 10 ng/ml, the sextant technique may offer cancer detection rates comparable with techniques using an increased number of cores, and with lower complication rates.
Maffezzini
Massimo
M
Struttura Complessa di Urologia, Ospedali Galliera, Genova, Italy. massimo.maffezzini@galliera.it
Gavazzi
Lorenzo
L
Calcagno
Tiziana
T
Capponi
Giacomo
G
Bandelloni
Roberto
R
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001707:Biopsy, Needle / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011467:Prostate / Q000473:pathology*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity