title: Is PCA3 score useful in preoperative staging of a single microfocus of prostate cancer diagnosed at saturation biopsy?.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate prostate cancer gene 3 (PCA3) score accuracy in preoperative staging of cases of single microfocus of prostate cancer (PCa; less than 5% with Gleason score ≤6) diagnosed after repeat saturation biopsy (median 30 cores).
  
  
  METHODS
  From January 2009 to March 2012, 38 patients (median 64 years) with a microfocus of PCa, median PSA of 9.1 ng/ml and T1c clinical stage underwent radical retropubic prostatectomy. PCA3 score (cut-off of 20 vs. 35) was evaluated in predicting insignificant PCa (pIPCa: cancer volume <0.5 ml and Gleason score ≤6) versus organ-confined (OC) versus non-OC PCa.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Median PCA3 score results were equal to 10 versus 53 (p < 0.05) versus 108 (p < 0.05) in the presence of pIPCa (13.2%), versus OC (65.8%) versus non-OC PCa (21%), respectively. PCA3 scores were significantly correlated with tumor volume.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A PCA3 score cut-off >20 in the presence of a microfocus of PCa is highly predictive of significant PCa (diagnostic accuracy equal to 86.8%) at definitive specimen.
authors.affiliation: Urology Unit, Cannizzaro Hospital, Catania, Italy. piepepe @ hotmail.com
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pepe
authors.forename: Filippo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fraggetta
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Galia
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Aragona
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000097:blood*; D001706:Biopsy / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods*; D011300:Preoperative Care; D011467:Prostate / Q000473:pathology; D011468:Prostatectomy / Q000379:methods; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; C479341:prostate cancer antigen 3, human