Early detection Focal cancer Pathology Prognosis Prostate biopsy

of the detection of prostate cancer at an earlier stage, urologists increasinglymustdealwith thefindingof a single small focusof prostatic cancer identified in prostate needle biopsies. Detection of these small cancer foci raises both diagnostic and clinical problems. For pathol-ogists, it may be challenging to make a definite diagnosis of prostate cancer, avoiding confusionwith look-alike benign lesions. A small cancer focus may be overlooked or misdiagnosed and consequences may be serious if the missed lesion, in fact, represents a high-grade cancer. Urologists should be aware of a potential variation in the pathologist’s threshold to call a cancer despite the introduction of helpful ancillary techniques. For urologists, the finding of a single small focus of prostatic cancer may present a dilemmawhether to treat or defer treatment given the limited correlation between biopsy and prostatectomy findings. From aclinicalperspective it is important tofindmeanstodifferentiatebetwee