title: Does length of prostate biopsy cores have an impact on diagnosis of prostate cancer?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether core length is a significant biopsy parameter in the detection of prostate cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively analyzed pathology reports of the specimens of 188 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer who had undergone initial transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guided prostate biopsy, and compared biopsy core lengths of the patients with, and without prostate cancer. The biopsy specimens of prostate cancer patients were divided into 3 groups according to core length, and the data obtained were compared (Group 1; total core length <10 mm, Group 2; total core length 10 mm-19 mm, and Group 3; total core length >20 mm). Biopsy core lengths of the patients diagnosed as prostate cancer, and benign prostatic hyperplasia were compared, and a certain cut-off value for core length with optimal diagnostic sensitivity and specificity for prostate cancer was calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean age, PSA and total length of cores were 65.08±7.41 years, 9.82±6.34 ng/mL and 11.2±0.2 mm, respectively. Assessment of biopsy core lengths showed that cores with cancer (n=993, median length 12.5 mm) were significantly longer than benign cores (n=1185, median length=11.3 mm) (p<0.001). Core length analysis yielded 12 mm cores have an optimal sensitivity (41.9%) and specificity (62%) for detection of cancer (odds ratio: 1.08).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Biopsy core length is one of the most important parameter that determines the quality of biopsy and detection of prostate cancer. A median sample length of 12 mm is ideal lower limit for cancer detection, and biopsy procedures which yield shorter biopsy cores should be repeated.
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Urology, Antalya Training and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Müslüm
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ergün
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Urology, Antalya Training and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ekrem
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: İslamoğlu
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Urology, Antalya Training and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Soner
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yalçınkaya
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Urology, Antalya Training and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Hüsnü
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tokgöz
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Urology, Antalya Training and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Savaş
keywords: Biopsy; cancer; core length; prostate