The dedifferentiation of metastatic prostate carcinoma

Two hundred consecutive staging lymphadenectomies with metastatic prostate adenocarcinoma and 100 consecutive autopsies with widely disseminated metastatic prostate adenocarcinoma were identified. The metastases from 41% of the staging lymphadenectomies were entirely differentiated (gland forming) a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of cancer 1989-01, Vol.59 (1), p.85-88
Main Authors: BRAWN, P. N, SPEIGHTS, V. O
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adenocarcinoma - pathology
Adenocarcinoma - secondary
Aged
Biological and medical sciences
Cell Differentiation
Humans
Lymph Nodes - pathology
Lymphatic Metastasis - pathology
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Neoplasm Metastasis - pathology
Nephrology. Urinary tract diseases
Prostatic Neoplasms - pathology
Tumors of the urinary system
Urinary tract. Prostate gland
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Two hundred consecutive staging lymphadenectomies with metastatic prostate adenocarcinoma and 100 consecutive autopsies with widely disseminated metastatic prostate adenocarcinoma were identified. The metastases from 41% of the staging lymphadenectomies were entirely differentiated (gland forming) and an additional 43% were predominantly (50% or more) differentiated. In contrast, the metastases from 70% of the autopsies were entirely undifferentiated (non-gland forming) and an additional 18% were predominantly undifferentiated. Further, five patients with completely or predominantly differentiated metastases in staging lymphadenectomies were found to have widespread completely or predominantly undifferentiated metastases at autopsy 4-7 years later. These findings suggest that dedifferentiation occurs within metastases and that dedifferentiation within metastases may be important in understanding the widespread dissemination of metastatic prostate carcinoma.
ISSN:0007-0920
1532-1827
DOI:10.1038/bjc.1989.16