Purpose: To describe characteristics of pure small cell carcinoma of prostate (SCCP) and assess the prognostic factors.
Patients and methods: We summarized data of pure SCCP from published studies and ours and made Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression to evaluate prognosis factors.
Results: A total of 2,213 patients with prostate cancer was identified, of which eight (0.36%) patients were pure SCCP. The mean age at diagnosis was 61 years old. And there were 2 patients diagnosed at 34 and 50 years old respectively. Symptoms of these patients were similar to patients with prostate adenocarcinoma. Serum prostate specific antigen of 7 patients was at normal level. Five patients received chemotherapy, average overall survival (OS) was 9.75 months; 3 only received conservative treatment, average OS was 4 months. By univariate and multivariate Cox analysis, chemotherapy is an independent predictor of survival. Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that chemotherapy was associated with longer OS.
Conclusion: Clinical characteristics, examination and treatment strategy of pure SCCP are very different from prostate adenocarcinoma. According to the data from published studies and from our studies, the average survival of patients receiving chemotherapy is longer than those who received other treatment modalities.
Keywords: Prognosis; Chemotherapy; Diagnosis; Prostate; Small cell carcinoma.
© 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel.