CLINICAL STUDY ON PROSTATE-SPECIFIC ANTIGEN AND γ-SEMINO-PROTEIN LEVELS IN PATIENTS WITH PROSTATE CANCER

Abstract

We measured blood levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and γ-semino-protein (γSM) prior to therapy in 80 previously untreated patients with prostate cancer and calculated the PSA/γSM ratio (P/S). Forty-six patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia who had undergone subucapsular resection were served as controls. We measured the volume of the prostate gland by ultrasound before treatment, and the PSA (PSAD) and γSM (γSMD) levels per unit volume were calculated. The sensitivities of PSA and γSM were 0.9750 and 0.8125, respectively, thus being very high. On the other hand, the specificities were extremly low, being 0.1304 and 0.2391, respectively. Nevertheless, the PSA, γSM, P/S, PSAD and γSMD levels were all significantly higher in patients with prostatic cancer than in those with benign prostatic hyperplasia. Although it is difficult to differentiate between Stage A prostatic cancer and prostatic hyperplasia based on these markers alone, the high sensitivity of PSA for Stage A cancer (89%) suggests that biopsy should be performed at multiple sites when the PSA level exceeds the cutoff value.