Negative Biopsy
Biopsies detect prostate cancer in about 25% of men with abnormal screening tests. However a negative biopsy does not ensure the absence of disease. Repeat prostate biopsies are positive in about 25-30% of patients whose initial biopsy was negative.
During a biopsy procedure, less than 1 percent of the entire prostate gland is sampled, so men can harbor prostate cancer in spite of having a negative initial biopsy.
Recently in order to address this problem, researchers have examined the ability of mitochondrial DNA to help diagnose prostate cancer in negative biopsy samples.
Read more about this topic: Prostate Biopsy
Famous quotes containing the word negative:
“The idealist’s programme of political or economic reform may be impracticable, absurd, demonstrably ridiculous; but it can never be successfully opposed merely by pointing out that this is the case. A negative opposition cannot be wholly effectual: there must be a competing idealism; something must be offered that is not only less objectionable but more desirable.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)