Quick Case: Tuberculosis of the Prostate – Is It Rare in India?

In the last one year, I have done 70 Tru-Cut biopsies of prostate, all having raised PSA levels. Forty out of them were diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, one with sarcoma, two with adenocarcinoma co-existing with tuberculosis, three with tuberculosis, ten with benign or nodular hyperplasia and the rest (fourteen) were diagnosed with chronic or acute-on-chronic prostatitis.

It is a standard teaching that tuberculosis of the prostate is rare, but according to my experience, at least 5-6% of men suspected to have prostate cancer might have tuberculosis. However, PSA levels of the patients with tuberculosis of the prostate had PSA levels within 100ng/µl.

Learning Points/Take Home Messages

Tuberculosis of the prostate is not that rare in India, as thought or taught; it often mimics carcinoma!