Early diagnosis of prostatic carcinoma may be achieved through in vitro culture of tumor cells harvested by prostatic massage

As a new method for early diagnosis of prostatic carcinoma we succeeded in growing in vitro the epithelial cells which can be collected from prostatic fluid after rectal prostatic massage. We report here the updated and statistically analyzed series of data (174 patients) on this new approach, which allows all the harvested cells to express their biological features. The method reaches a sensitivity of 72-86% and a specificity of 88-100%. This noninvasive test, which is also suitable for mass screening, may be very useful for an early diagnosis of the neoplasm.