Location and Pathological Characteristics of Cancers in Radical Prostatectomy Specimens Identified by Transperineal Biopsy Compared to Transrectal Biopsy

Purpose: Anterior tumors are estimated to constitute 20% of prostate cancers. Current data indicate that transperineal biopsy is more reliable than transrectal biopsy in identifying these tumors. If correct, this superior reliability should result in an increased proportion of anterior tumors identified by transperineal biopsy. We investigated this hypothesis with reference to prostatectomy specimens.Materials and Methods: Radical prostatectomy histopathology records were retrospectively examined. Patients were grouped based on primary transperineal or transrectal biopsy as the modality used to identify the initial cancer. After grouping, tumor location and size were recorded and, thus, the proportion of anterior tumors was determined.Results: A total of 1,132 (414 transperineal and 718 transrectal) prostatectomy specimens were examined. Overall mean tumor size (1.8 and 2.0 cm3), stage (pT2 63.3% and 61%) and significance (5.1% and 5.1%) for the transperineal and transrectal methods were similar. However,...