The study of mucin histochemistry in benign and malignant lesions of prostate

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of mucin stains in differentiating benign and malignant lesions of prostate. Materials and Methods: Sections were obtained from archival paraffin blocks which included randomly selected 70 cases of benign hyperplasia and 30 cases of carcinoma prostate. After confirming the diagnosis, sections were stained for Periodic Acid Schiff (PAS) to study neutral mucins, Alcian blue (2.5 pH) to study acidic mucins and combined Alcian blue - PAS to study the mucin character. Results: Benign hyperplasia of prostate showed positivity for neutral mucins (98.57%) but not for acidic mucins, whereas prostatic carcinomas showed positivity for acidic mucins (46.66%) in addition to the positivity for neutral mucins (56.66%). All the cases of low grade prostatic carcinomas showed positivity for acidic mucins but none of the high grade carcinomas showed positivity for the same. Conclusion: Positivity for acidic mucins with Alcian Blue (2.5 pH) technique can be used to differentiate well differentiated adenocarcinomas of prostate from benign hyperplasia especially in those cases where prostatic lesion is a questionable malignancy either because it is so well differentiated histologically or have altered architecture so as to make it cytologically un diagnosable (P = 0.001).