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Prostate Pathology

When your prostate was biopsied, the samples taken were studied under the microscope by a specialized doctor with many years of training called a pathologist. The pathologist sends your doctor a report that gives a diagnosis for each sample taken. Information in this report will be used to help manage your care. The information here is meant to help you understand medical language you might find in the pathology report from the prostate biopsy.

Understanding Your Pathology Report

Benign Conditions

Benign prostate tissue, benign prostate glands, and benign prostatic hyperplasia are terms that mean there is no cancer present. Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is also a term used to describe a common, benign type of prostate enlargement caused by an increase number of normal prostate cells.

Prostatic Intraepithelial Neoplasia (PIN) and Intraductal Carcinoma

In PIN, there are changes in how the prostate gland cells look under the microscope, but the abnormal cells don't look like they are growing into other parts of the prostate (like cancer cells would).

Atypical or Suspicious Findings (Including ASAP)

These findings mean that the pathologist saw something under the microscope that is worrisome for cancer, but they are not absolutely sure that cancer is present.

Prostate Cancer (Adenocarcinoma)

Adenocarcinoma is the type of cancer that develops in gland cells. It is the most common type of cancer found in the prostate gland.

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