BACKGROUND: It has been known that the National Institutes of Health category IV (NIH-IV) prostatitis increases the serum total prostate-specific antigen (tPSA) in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia.
However, the effect of NIH-IV prostatitis on tPSA levels, which are used for staging prostate cancer (PCa) in patients with PCa, has not been previously investigated.
AIM: To evaluate the effect of NIH-IV prostatitis on the tPSA which is used for staging PCa in patients with newly diagnosed PCa.
METHOD: A total of 198 patients in whom PCa was detected were included in the study. Group 1 included patients with only PCa, while Group 2 included patients with prostatitis and PCa. The tPSA levels of patients in Groups 1 and 2 were compared.
RESULTS: A total of 120 (61 %) PCa (Group 1) and 78 (39 %) PCa + NIH-IV prostatitis (Group 2) patients were identified. The tPSA levels of 70 (58 %) patients in Group 1 and 22 (28 %) patients in Group 2 were at the interval of < 20 ng/ml (the mean levels of tPSA: 11.8 ± 4.5 and 14.1 ± 3.3, respectively). The tPSA levels of 50 (42 %) patients in Group 1 and 56 (72 %) patients in Group 2 were within the range of ≥20 ng/ml (the mean levels of tPSA: 39.9 ± 31.0 and 47.0 ± 29.2, respectively). Within both the < 20 ng/ml range and ≥20 ng/ml range, the mean tPSA value in Group 2 was found to be significantly higher than that of Group 1 (p = 0.03 and 0.01, respectively).
CONCLUSION: The existence of NIH-IV prostatitis together with cancer in patients with PCa significantly increases the tPSA level which is used in staging the PCa.
Written by:
Aglamis E, Tasdemir C, Ceylan C. Are you the author?
Clinics of Urology, Elazig Education and Research Hospital, Elazig, 23100, Turkey.
Reference: Ir J Med Sci. 2013 Feb 1. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1007/s11845-013-0914-1
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 23370973
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