A recent study published in The Prostate showed that analysing peritumoural lymphatic vessel density (PTLD) in prostate biopsy cores could help to predict the lymphatic spread of clinically localized prostate cancer.
Researchers examined positive biopsy cores from 99 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy, immunostaining them with a monoclonal antibody against lymphatic endothelium. It was found that peritumoural lymphatic vessels were present in at least one positive biopsy core in 90.9 percent of cases, while intratumoral lymphatic vessels were seen in just 23.2 percent of cases.
Positive biopsy core rates were significantly associated with average and maximal PTLD and the presence of intratumoral lymphatic vessels.
This approach may become a useful technique for predicting early spread of the disease and suggests that patients with high PTLD in biopsy specimens should be carefully monitored after surgery.
