CARCINOMA CELLS IN PROSTATIC SECRETIONS

Abstract

Cancer of the prostate accounts for 8,000 deaths each year in the United States and is clinically the second commonest cancer in men. 1 The condition is usually detected with the examining finger, 2 a procedure which is rather accurate for well advanced carcinoma but which is not accurate for early questionable lesions. Colby 3 found the impression gained from digital examination to be in error in 8 of 34 patients with early lesions who underwent radical perineal prostatectomy. McHeffey 4 found experienced urologists 88 per cent accurate when they made the clinical diagnosis of prostatic cancer in patients who needed surgical treatment for urinary obstruction. To detect early malignant lesions with the examining finger presupposes that all carcinomas arise in the posterior regions of the gland. Kahler, 5 in a detailed pathologic study of malignant lesions of the prostate, noted more instances of carcinoma arising in the anterior and