Does prostate acinar adenocarcinoma with Gleason Score 3+3=6 have the potential to metastasize?

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There is a worldwide debate involving clinicians, uropathologists as well as patients and their families on whether Gleason score 6 adenocarcinoma should be labelled as cancer. CASE DESCRIPTION: We report a case of man diagnosed with biopsy Gleason score 6 acinar adenocarcinoma and classified as low risk (based on a PSA of 5 ng/mL and stage cT2a) whose radical prostatectomy specimen initially showed organ confined Gleason score 3+3=6, WHO nuclear grade 3, acinar adenocarcinoma with lymphovascular invasion and secondary deposit in a periprostatic lymph node. When deeper sections were cut to the point that almost all the slice present in the paraffin block was sectioned, a small tumor area (<5% of the whole tumor) of Gleason pattern 4 (poorly formed glands) was found in an extraprostatic position. CONCLUSION: The epilogue was that the additional finding changed the final Gleason score to 3+3=6 with tertiary pattern 4 and the stage to pT3a. VIRTUAL SLIDES: The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/13000_2014_190.