Prostatic adenocarcinoma evolving into carcinoid: selective effect of hormonal treatment?

Two patients, aged 72 and 65 years, each underwent two prostatic resections spaced four and two years apart, respectively. In both cases the earlier procedure showed widespread adenocarcinoma with only occasional endocrine cells, while tissue from the later operations showed prostatic carcinoids. It is suggested that the conventional adenocarcinomas were sensitive to hormonal manipulations used in treatment, but that the originally sparse carcinoid components were resistant to this form of treatment and hence became the predominant tumours. These findings imply that endocrine differentiation in prostatic carcinoma leads to lack of sex steroid sensitivity.