The Vanishing Cancer Phenomenon

 

Differential diagnosis:

(1) minute cancer totally removed at the initial biopsy

(2) initial diagnosis of cancer incorrect (false positive)

(3) failure to examine the resected specimen completely

(4) error in diagnosis of the resected specimen

(5) specimens from different patients switched, with the resection performed on the wrong patient

(6) wrong side resected (error in specimen labeling or in reporting)

(7) wrong location resected (difficulty finding the biopsy site)

(8) antineoplastic therapy administered prior to resection (shrinkage of residual tumor)

 

The presence of minute cancers seen only in the biopsy specimens is a documented phenomenon in prostate cancer.

 

Molecular techniques can confirm that the biopsy and resected specimens are from the same patient.