Ductal adenocarcinoma is a rare subtype of prostate cancer with a worse prognosis.Histologically, it is characterized by the presence of tall, pseudostratified columnar epithelium with abundant cytoplasm organized in a papillary or cribriform-papillary pattern. Several clinical differences distinguish this subtype of prostate cancer by the conventional acinar adenocarcinoma: exophytic growth into the prostatic urethra, different clinical presentation, different sites of metastasis and more aggressiveness. The rarity of this tumour forced to base our knowledge on small case series or on individual case reports, and does not help to establish appropriate guidelines. Therefore, the diagnosis of this tumour masks clinical implications that are still not well-understood.We report the case of a 69-year-old Caucasian man with a diagnosis of pure prostate ductal adenocarcinoma that early developed multiple metastases after radical prostatectomy. The patient started hormonal therapy with a fast biochemical and radiologic (positron emission tomography-computed tomography, PET-CT) hormonal escape. Therefore, we took the decision to perform chemotherapy with Taxotere along with prednisolone with a relative stability of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level, but a new PET-CT scan showed a further progression of the disease. Finally, the patient underwent therapy with Abiraterone acetate that did not stop the cancer progression.No therapeutic options available showed a good control of disease progression. PSA proved to be a poor marker while, on the contrary, PET-CT scan has proved to be particularly useful in the management of the disease progression. More efforts are required to add new knowledge about this tumour and assess what is known until now.
Urologia. 2016 May 06 [Epub ahead of print]
Eugenio Martorana, Salvatore Micali, Giacomo Maria Pirola, Luca Reggiani Bonetti, Vera Clò, Ahmed Ghaith, Giampaolo Bianchi
Department of Urology, University of Modena, Modena - Italy., Department of Urology, University of Modena, Modena - Italy., Department of Urology, University of Modena, Modena - Italy., Department of Pathology, University of Modena, Modena - Italy., Department of Oncology, University of Modena, Modena - Italy., Department of Urology, Tanta University, Tanta - Egypt., Department of Urology, University of Modena, Modena - Italy.