The clinical usefulness of serum prostate specific antigen(tandem-E) in the prostate disease

Lee, Ji Youl; Cho, Yong Hyun

Abstract

The purpose or this study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) in prostate disease with Tandem-E method. The advantages of this immunoenzymatic assay (Tandem-E) are that no radioactive material must be handled by laboratory personnel, no radioactive waste products must be disposed of in a meticulous manner and it is markedly less expensive to establish a laboratory capable of performing the immunoenzymatic as apposed to the immunoradiometric assay. And the performance characteristics of the Tandem-E PSA were similar to those of the Tandem-R PSA assay. Serum PSA was measured in 30 healthy men without prostate disease as control and 90 prostate disease patients (Chronic prostatitis: 20, Benign prostate hyperplasia(BPH) 40 and Prostate cancer: 30) with Tandem-E & Tandem-R methods. Chronic prostatitis patients were divided into two subgroups(group I: 10 patients with bacterial prostatitis, group II 10 patients with nonbacterial prostatitis), and BPH patients were divided into three subgroups(group A(10): Prostate volume: <25cm3, group B(20) : prostate volume: 26-50cms, group C(10) prostate volume; >51cm 3). Mean(+/-SD) serum PSA(Tandem-E) in control group was 1.88+/-0.85 ng/ml. In chronic prostatic, BPH and prostate cancer group, they were 2.10+/-1.22, 6.64+/-2.85 and 51.21+/-34.05 ng/ml. There was no significant difference between chronic prostatitis and control group(p>0.05), but not in BPH group(p<0.05). The benign prostatic hyperplastic tissue elevated the serum PSA level according to the prostate volume(group A: 4.24+/-1.64, group B: 6.68+/-1.58, group C: 8.79+/-2.27). Mean(+/-SD) serum PSA(Tandem-E) in prostate cancer group was significantly elevated than that of control and BPH group(p<0.05) There was a direct correlation between the serum PSA concentration and clinical stage in prostate cancer group, but PSA is not sufficiently reliable to determine the clinical stage in individual basis. However, if combined with prostate volume, PSA(Tandem-E) may become a vital part of any early detection program. In this study, the results of Tandem-E PSA assay were similar to those of Tandem-R PSA assay in control and prostate disease patients.