Role of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) in the diagnosis of prostatic lesions with histologic correlation.

This study was carried-out to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and the role of FNAC in the diagnosis of prostatic lesions. FNAC was performed on 64 patients presented with enlarged prostate. Cytological diagnosis by fine needle aspiration (FNA) of the prostate was compared with histological diagnosis in 60 patients. Of these, 42 cases were cytologically diagnosed as benign lesions, 18 cases as malignant. In remaining 4 cases, materials were inadequate for diagnosis in one case and biopsy materials were not available in 3 cases. On histological examination, 42 cases which were cytologically diagnosed as benign, 40 cases were found to be benign and 2 cases were malignant histologically leading to 2 false negative diagnoses. Of the 18 cases diagnosed cytologically as malignant (considering atypical hyperplasia and carcinoma as malignant), 15 cases were proved to be so by histological examination. So there were false positive diagnoses in 3 cases. No patient suffered from any complication following the aspiration biopsy. The sensitivity of this study for detection of prostatic carcinoma was 88 percent; specificity was 93 percent and diagnostic accuracy 91.7 percent. In this prospective study, FNAC of prostate was found to be associated with high diagnostic yields. These data support the value of transrectal FNAC as sensitive, easy to perform method for sampling of an enlarged prostate. The procedure may be used as an efficient primary screening tool in the diagnosis of prostatic lesions. Frequent use of this technique in our country should be encouraged.