The role of PCNA as marker of proliferative activity in prostatic tumoural tissue and in nodal metastases after neoadjuvant deprivation therapy (NADT)

The detection of lymph node metastases in prostatic carcinoma has been shown to be the most important factor in predicting recurrence and progression, with increasing rates progressively with single, multiple and gross nodal involvement. Despite pelvic bilateral lymph node dissection being widely accepted as a surgical staging procedure and the fact that lymph node metastases have been correlated with disease progression, the biological significance of nodal involvement is still debated. The aim of this study was to analyse the histopathological effects of neoadjuvant androgen deprivation therapy on carcinoma tissue and to investigate the proliferative activity of regressive neoplastic cells analysing PCNA on prostatic tissue and PCNA on lymph node micrometastases. We believe that androgen deprivation therapy can have a moderating biological effect on nodal metastases, since we observed only small and partial cellular regressive aspects and a slight reduction of indexes of cellular proliferation.