PARAGANGLIOMA OF THE PROSTATIC URETHRA - A REPORT OF 3 CASES AND A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Objective To determine the incidence and clinical presentation of pros tatic urethral paragangliomas and to compare these findings with parag angliomas occurring in the other sites of the lower urinary tract. Pat ients and methods The clinical records of three patients with prostati c urethral paragangliomas were reviewed, as was the histology of each specimen. The tumours were stained immunocytochemically with neuron-sp ecific enolase, chromogranin, S100 protein, protein gene product 9.51 prostate-specific acid phosphatase and prostate-specific antigen. Resu lts The three tumours occurred in elderly men, two of whom presented w ith haematuria, one of whom also had a vesical transitional cell carci noma, and the third patient had obstructive symptoms due to co-existen t prostatic hyperplasia. The histological appearances and immunocytoch emical findings were consistent with paraganglioma. Treatment consiste d of local excision and there were no recurrences or metastases at 5 a nd 5 years in two patients for whom follow-up was available. Conclusio n Urethral paragangliomas are rare tumours arising in elderly men and are hormonally inactive. Although haematuria may be the presenting sym ptom, it is important to exclude additional more common and possibly m ore sinister lesions such as transitional cell carcinoma, Local excisi on appears to be curative.