Urine PCA3 mRNA level in diagnostic of prostate cancer

The objective of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic effects of urine PCA3 mRNA level in patients with prostate cancer (PC).

Twenty four patients with pathologically confirmed PC, 40 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and 13 patients with urolithiasis were recruited in this study. The urine level of PCA3 mRNA was determined with real-time polymerase chain reaction and compared among the three groups. With the reference parameter of urine PCA3 mRNA, the diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were calculated.

The mRNA level in urine of PC, BPH and urolithiasis were 60.2 ± 32.2, 17.1 ± 12.9, and 6.2 ± 3.1, respectively, indicating that mRNA level in PC was significantly higher than that of in other two groups (P < 0.05). The AUC was 0.90 while the sensitivity and specificity were 87.5% and 79.2% with the cutoff value of 33.86.

The urine PCA3 mRNA could be a biomarker for diagnosing patients with PC.

Journal of cancer research and therapeutics. 2018 Jan [Epub]

Meifeng Li, Dong Zhou, Weili Zhang, Song Gao, Xiaoqing Zhou

Department of Urology, Lishui People's Hospital, The 6th Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Zhejiang Province, PR China.