Aspiration smears of the prostate obtained by Franzén needle, as we already reported, providemore reliable diagnosis of prostatic cancer thanhistological biopsy specimens.
Successful results require some care in operatingaspiration procedures and reading cells on the slide. To obtain good specimens, negative pressure on theaspiration syringe must be continued for at least 30 seconds. And 2 or 3 slides must be made, untillwhite granules are found on it. In the microscopicexamination, attention should be payed not to individual cells, but to clustered cells, since it is oneof the particular findings of prostatic cancer thatmany clustered cells, which, indeed, have diagnosticproperties, can be aspirated.
Nevertheless, one should observe specimens obtained from cancer patients treated with estrogens with particular care, because they show similar cytological trends to benign features.
Discrimination of prostatic cancer from other metastatic malignancies can be delivered more easily byexamination of acid phosphatase activity in the aspirate.
