Feulgen Reaction as a Marker for Identifying Prostatic Hyperplasia and Prostate Cancer

Abstract

Introduction: A prostate cancer case in sub-Saharan Africa is rising. In Sudan, prostate cancer ranks third at after breast cancer. The nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid content has been shown to be of great prognostic value in prostate tumors. In the present work, we focus on semi-quantification of nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid in prostate cancer compared to prostatic hyperplasia using the Feulgen reaction technique. Methods: Paraffin wax sections were selected from patients previously diagnosed with prostatic hyperplasia and prostatic cancer. Clinic pathological data of patients were collected from the records of the archive of the National Health Laboratory Khartoum Sudan. From all cases, two sections were taken. One section was stained with Hematoxylin and eosin stain to confirm the diagnosis, while the other paraffin section was used for deoxyribonucleic acid demonstration using Feulgen reaction. Results: A total of 46 patients with a clinical and pathologic diagnosis of prostatic tumors were enrolled in this study; 23 (50.1%) had high-grade prostatic adenocarcinoma, 11 (23.9%) had moderate grade prostatic adenocarcinoma, two (4.3%) had low-grade prostatic adenocarcinoma and 10 (21.7%) had benign hyperplasia. The significant differences in deoxyribonucleic acid staining intensities were observed in high-grade prostatic adenocarcinomas. The deoxyribonucleic acid staining intensities of moderate and high-grade prostatic adenocarcinomas were significantly higher than those of benign hyperplasia (P<0.000). Conclusion: Deoxyribonucleic acid detection using Feulgen reaction may provide valuable prognostic information in prostate cancer, with potential clinical implications in patient management, active research on this topic should be a high priority objective.