A Systematic Review of the Phosphorus Content of the Normal Human Prostate Gland

Abstract

The prostate gland is subject to various disorders. The etiology and pathogenesis of these diseases are not well understood. Moreover, despite technological advancements, the differential diagnosis of prostate disorders has become progressively more complex and controversial. It was suggested that the P level in prostatic tissue plays an important role in prostatic carcinogenesis and its measurement may be useful as a cancer biomarker. These suggestions promoted more detailed studies of the P content in the prostatic tissue of healthy subjects. The present study evaluated by systematic analysis the published data for P content analyzed in prostatic tissue of “normal” glands. This evaluation reviewed 1919 studies, all of which were published in the years from 1921 to 2020 and were located by searching the databases Scopus, PubMed, MEDLINE, ELSEVIER-EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and the Web of Science. The articles were analyzed and “Median of Means” and “Range of Means” were used to examine heterogeneity of the measured P content in prostates of apparently healthy men. The objective analysis was performed on data from the 27 studies, which included 974 subjects. It was found that the range of means of prostatic P content reported in the literature for “normal” gland varies widely from 350 mg/kg to 2460 mg/kg with median of means 1295 mg/kg on a wet mass basis. The study has demonstrated that levels of P in “normal” prostates likely depends on androgen levels, dietary P intake, and relative amounts of different types of prostatic tissue studied, and does not depend on age and zone of human prostate sampled,. Finally, because of small sample size and high data heterogeneity, we recommend other primary studies be performed.