Flow cytometric analysis of comedocarcinoma of the prostate: an uncommon histopathological variant of prostatic adenocarcinoma.

Pathological data from 321 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy or cystoprostatectomy with a diagnosis of prostatic adenocarcinoma were reviewed. Of these specimens 4 (1.2 per cent) demonstrated histopathological findings consistent with prostatic comedocarcinoma. Prostatic acid phosphatase and prostate specific antigen detected by immunoperoxidase technique confirmed the prostatic origin of all comedocarcinomas studied. Flow cytometric analysis of deparaffinized sections from these specimens as well as a total of 40 representative specimens from normal prostate, and low, intermediate and high grade prostatic carcinomas was performed. Frequency of aneuploidy in low, intermediate and high grade prostatic adenocarcinoma was 0, 43 and 75 per cent, respectively. All cases of prostatic comedocarcinoma studied had distinctly aneuploid deoxyribonucleic acid histograms and the mean deoxyribonucleic acid content in comedocarcinoma was the highest of all groups analyzed. The mean time to recurrence in patients with comedocarcinoma was 13 months. Our flow cytometric data suggest that prostatic comedocarcinoma represents a potentially aggressive tumor demonstrating cytogenetic aberration shown to be associated with poor clinical outcome in prostatic adenocarcinoma.