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Immunohistochemistry

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Although there are many methods that help with diagnosing prostate cancer such as biomarkers and needle core biopsy, it is the practice patterns of different pathologists that in the end determine the diagnosis. This article explains how and why interobserver variability can affect the ability to diagnose prostate cancer. Additionally, it determines the outliers for immunohistochemistry work up. Immunohistochemistry is a method that can help aid the diagnosis of prostate needle core biopsy specimens. This procedure looks at the small foci of prostatic adenocarcinomas and limits the over diagnosis of non-neoplastic look-alikes.
This study analyzed immunohistochemistry usage and data as well as practice patterns from many pathologists at a tertiary care center to identify the outlying practice patterns. Prior …show more content…

The cases were placed into four categories: non-neoplastic, high grade intraepithelial neoplasia, atypical small acinar proliferation, or adenocarcinoma. The findings showed that there were either lower rates of non-neoplastic diagnoses with higher rate of high grade intraepithelial neoplasia, or vice versa. The diagnosis of adenocarcinoma and atypical small acinar proliferation had no significant variability between pathologists. The study suggests that institutions should analyze pathologists practice patterns to determine if the pathologist is an outlier with errors in his/her diagnosis. This would affect clinical management. Along with determining the pathologists’ diagnoses, immunohistochemistry use was also observed. The rate of immunohistochemistry usage was lower than other tertiary care centers. Also, immunohistochemistry was used greatly to determine adenocarcinomas. The articles reports “efficient use of IHC’s in diagnosing prostate biopsy specimens could have important cost-saving

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