Prostate specific antigen and prostate specific acid phosphatase in adenocarcinoma of Skene's paraurethral glands and ducts

Abstract

An autopsy case of adenocarcinoma of Skene's paraurethral gland co-incident with renal cell carcinoma is described. The adenocarcinoma showed distinct prostate specific antigen and prostate specific acid phosphatase pointing to the equivalence between the male prostate and Skene's paraurethral glands and ducts. Skene's gland are the homologue of the prostate in females and tumours arising from them are immunohistochemically similar to male prostate carcinoma.

Clear Cell Adenocarcinoma of the Male Urethra in Association with So-Called Nephrogenic Metaplasia

“…Development from adenocarcinomas primarily arising in the periurethral glands [13,15,20,21] with secondary clear cell transformation may also occur. Clear cell and common adenocarcinomas of the periurethral ducts in women have been reported to stain positively for prostate-specific acid phosphatase and prostate antigen, suggesting female paraurethral glands to be homologous to the prostate glands [20][21][22]. The herein presented carcinoma in a male patient did not show immunohistochemical positivity for the prostate markers, confirming the results of others [10].…”

Urethral carcinoma: critical view on contemporary consecutive series

“…A recent study showed 66.7% PSA and PAP-positive cases among 33 studied [25]. However, the negativity of the PSA on tumor tissue does not necessarily deny this origin [8].…”

Immunoreactivity of prostate-specific antigen in male breast carcinomas: Two examples of a diagnostic pitfall in discriminating a primary breast cancer from metastatic prostate carcinoma

“…4,5,11,12 Some examples of such nonspecific staining have been seen in apocrine sweat gland tumors of the skin and breast, oncocytoma of the parotid gland, carcinomas of the pancreas, urinary bladder, ovary, and paraurethral glands, pleomorphic adenomas, Warthin's tumors, mucoepidermoid carcinomas, and adenoid cystic carcinomas of the salivary gland. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Certainly, the two male patients who presented in this study with malignant breast tumor and PSA positivity did create such a dilemma. Also, since in both cases, apart from breast mass, symptoms of on-and-off urinary incontinence were present.…”

“…2 Recently, the commonly held belief that immunostaining of PSA is specific for prostate epithelium has been questioned, due to its demonstration in nonprostatic tissues 4,5 and nonprostatic neoplasms. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that expression of PSA is not restricted to the prostate gland, and its demonstration in other neoplasms cannot be considered as an unequivocal evidence of prostatic origin.…”