# High-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN)

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/high-grade-pin/  
OnCo record `high-grade-pin` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Abnormal cells lining prostate ducts that are not cancer and are not treated. On its own it is a finding, not a diagnosis; what matters is whether it is widespread and whether anything more atypical was seen beside it.

## Summary

High-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia is an abnormal proliferation of the cells lining prostatic ducts and acini, with the basal cell layer still present. It is a recognised precursor lesion and it has its own morphological code in the UK reporting dataset, but it is not cancer, it is not staged and it is not treated. Isolated HGPIN on a biopsy in the era of MRI-targeted sampling carries a low enough risk of a cancer being found on a repeat biopsy that it does not by itself trigger one.

What changed in the WHO fifth edition is the boundary above it. Lesions with more atypia than HGPIN but not enough for intraductal carcinoma are now called atypical intraductal proliferation, and what used to be reported as cribriform high-grade PIN has moved into that category, because the carcinomas found beside atypical intraductal proliferation behave like those found beside intraductal carcinoma. So the three-step ladder a reader may meet on a report runs HGPIN, then atypical intraductal proliferation, then intraductal carcinoma of the prostate, and only the last two change what happens next.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-25
- Also known as: HGPIN; high-grade PIN; prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia; PIN; high grade PIN

## Sources

- Royal College of Pathologists G084: dataset for histopathology reports for prostatic carcinoma, version 4, October 2024: https://www.rcpath.org/static/8cc88604-2c8d-4df4-a99542df41c102af/G084-dataset-for-histopathology-reports-for-prostatic-carcinoma.pdf
- Kench et al., Histopathology 2022: WHO Classification of Tumours fifth edition, evolving issues in the classification, diagnosis and prognostication of prostate cancer: https://doi.org/10.1111/his.14711

## Connected records

- terms: [Carcinoma in situ (CIS)](https://onco.cc/terms/carcinoma-in-situ/), [Cribriform growth pattern in prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/terms/cribriform-prostate-cancer/), [Dysplasia (pre-cancerous change)](https://onco.cc/terms/dysplasia/), [Intraductal carcinoma of the prostate (IDC-P)](https://onco.cc/terms/intraductal-carcinoma-prostate/)
- cancers: [Prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/prostate/)
- fronts: [Diagnostics & Biomarkers](https://onco.cc/fronts/diagnostics/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/high-grade-pin.json