<snip>

It happens, though mine was not the same in the biopsy report. I had
10 cores taken and only 9 were referenced in the report.
Down the line, I queried the chief oncologist at the start of my
treatment on this and he just shrugged and suggested the unreported
core was probably "a misfire" and moved on to other matters.

Actually, anyone having a prostate biopsy is extremely LUCKY to get a
valid report first time round, as the TRUS imaging is very hazy just
looking at the prostate, let alone defining the tumour. I know of a
guy who eventually had 4 biopsies, (2 at different venues), before he
got a valid report, which showed some 2x G8s and 1 x G9.

I wouldn't worry about malignant cells released into your body. PCa
doesn't work like that.

   
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Ron wrote...snip...

Ron...Don't know what happened to the sample, but cancerous cells from
the prostate were circulating in you body way before the biopsy.
Generally, it is not until the disease progresses to the point where
various growth factors and proteins allow colonization of the cells at
distant sites that circulating cells can cause mets.  Until that time,
circulating cancerous cells simply die and are removed from the body.
Given the few pieces of information you included in your note, you are
unlikely to be at that stage.  So don't worry, even if the snippet was
left in your body, it is unlikely to cause any negative effects...Best
wishes and good health, Ron

Considering how a DRE is done, of course is "ass-symetry".

The "no tissue" needle might just be a miss... I've never heard of it,
which does not astound me since I'm new to all this.  Was the biopsy
finger or ultra-sound guided?

Ron,
Sounds to me like one of your biopsy specimens was intended, but not
completed somewhere in the process. You already know what you have so
it does not make much difference from the point of view of what to do
next. I just sent a message to another "club" member, that I'll repeat
for you since we have some things in common (don't we all?). Sorry to
hear of your misfortune. I was 50 when I got the bad news about 2 years
ago. It was devastating!  I'm doing great now. Only you can decide what
is best for you. Take your time and read all you can. Most of the guys
here did that, and we came to different conclusions. Most sound happy
with their decisions, and you probably will be too. I had a Robotic
Laparoscopic RP in February of 2004. The surgeon was Dr.Joseph Wagner.
He has done hundreds of robotic procedures.I'm very pleased with him.
You could look at the Hartford Hospitals website www.harthosp.org for
information about the procedure. They have a video of one of the
operations that you can watch on your computer, and the doctors explain
everything. I went there and I am very happy with my results. The
operation took about 3 hours, but seemed like seconds to me. I was able
to go home 20 hours later, and back to work day 6. Now I never leak,
and a most of my erection ability has returned. The worst part was
waiting between the diagnosis and the surgery. I picked surgery because
I think it offers the best chance of a complete cure. PSA is expected
to drop to nothing. You can have the pathologist go over the whole
gland, nor just tiny pieces of it. Also, I wanted to take the hit on
erection and continence at the start and get it over with. If you get
good results from surgery, it lasts. I wanted the robot technique
because I like having the doctor be able to see as well as possible,
and the post op misery is less. All the treatments have potential
benefit and risks. Check them all out.
My PCa stuff is:
age 50 PSA 4.5
Bx showed High Grade PIN
5 months later PSA 5.6
repeat Bx 1/12 cores <1mm gleason 3+3=6 stage T1c
RLRP 2-11-04 at age 50
Favorable path, 5 small foci of 3+3, organ contained
Post op PSAs  <0.1
Steve U

  That's the least of your worries Ron. It's like being a little bit
pregnant. If that sample turned out to be pos or neg..... you'd still be
faced with movin gon to the next step. This is not a death sentence. You're
much more likely to die of something other than PCa based on what I'm
hearing. Keep reading and interviewing good docs to help you make your
treatment choice.

I do not recall anyone bring it up before, but now that I think back, people
have reported their full biopsy results and I think there are often times
where a core is left blank or "no sample".

The three most likely reasons that I can think of (and I am not a doctor)
would be miss, misfire, hit a vein.