Validity of primary care patient self-report of abnormal (but not cancer) prostate biopsy results

Purpose: We assessed the validity of patient self-report of abnormal (but not cancer) prostate biopsy results, ie, atypical cells or prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia. Materials and Methods: We compared survey responses and pathology records for 156 men from a multicenter, prospective cohort study, which was designed to evaluate the impact of a suspicious prostate cancer screening test followed by benign prostate biopsy. Results: Of the 156 subjects 45 (29%) reported having had atypical cells or prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia and 38 (24%) had a pathology report with atypia or prostate intraepithelial neoplasia. The sensitivity of the self-report was 87%, specificity was 90%, positive predictive value was 73% and negative predictive value was 95%. The K statistic was 0.7. Conclusions: Men in this study reported this complex result accurately. However, it was concerning that 5 men (13%) appeared unaware of an abnormal prostate biopsy result, especially given the substantial residual risk of prostate cancer conferred by this result.