Interobserver variations in reporting of prostatic adenocarcinoma using core biopsy specimens: a retrospective study from a tertiary referral hospital in Saudi Arabia

In recent years, greater numbers of prostate biopsy cores are being submitted for histopathological assessment, with a concomitant increase in workload for the pathologist. This retrospective study aimed to assess the concordance and interobserver variation between histopathologists in reporting prostatic adenocarcinoma using material obtained from prostatic core biopsy specimens. A total of 810 prostatic needle core biopsy specimens obtained from 100 patients with suspected prostatic adenocarcinoma were retrieved from the archival material at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, and classified independently by 3 experienced histopathologists who were blinded to the original diagnosis. There was considerable interobserver agreement between the pathologists, with unweighted kappa scores ranging from 0.69–0.85. We would encourage other hospital pathologists to review periodically the uniformity of diagnoses in an attempt to improve their practices in prostate gland pathology.