BACKGROUND: Serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) may be elevated in otherwise healthy men; systemic inflammation has been associated with cancer.
The study of systemic inflammatory markers in men without clinical prostate disease, but with elevated PSA may characterize the subgroup of men at higher risk for subsequent prostate cancer.
METHODS: We investigated the associations between systemic inflammatory markers and serum PSA in 3,164 healthy men without prostatic disease, aged >40 years, from the 2001 to 2008 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Serum total PSA levels and concentrations of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and plasma fibrinogen, neutrophil count, lymphocyte count, and platelet count were recorded. Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) ratio and platelet-lymphocyte (PLR) ratio were calculated. PSA elevation was defined as levels equal or greater than 4 ng/ml.
RESULTS: Elevated serum PSA (194 men, 6.1% of the total), was significantly associated with plasma fibrinogen (ORmultiv = 1.88; 95% CI, 1.09-3.25), and NLR (ORmultiv = 1.14; 95% CI, 1.03-1.26), after adjustment for age, smoking, body mass index, education, race, co-morbidities, and use of medications.
CONCLUSIONS: Markers of systemic inflammation were associated with elevated PSA in men without known prostatic disease. Future studies are needed to examine these markers' relationship with prostate cancer occurrence and progression.
Written by:
McDonald AC, Vira MA, Vidal AC, Gan W, Freedland SJ, Taioli E. Are you the author?
Department of Population Health, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, Great Neck, New York; Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, North Shore-LIJ Health System, Manhasset, New York.
Reference: Prostate. 2014 Jan 16. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1002/pros.22782
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 24435840
UroToday.com Prostate Cancer Section
