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Preoperative Serum Prostate-specific Antigen (PSA) Below 10 µg/L Predicts Neither the Presence of Prostate Cancer Nor the Rate of Postoperative PSA Failure

¹ Stanford University, Department of Urology S-287, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5118, E-mail tstamey{at}leland.stanford.edu

Recent information on the relationship of serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) to prostate cancer and new reports on death rates in men warrant a reassessment of how we diagnose and treat prostate cancer. We now know for the first time that the annual death rate from prostate cancer in men 65 years of age is only 226 per 100 000 men. At least 40 000 of 100 000 men over age 65 (40%) have invasive prostate cancer as judged by examination of prostates in 3- to 4-mm step-sections. Thus, only 1 of every 177 men 65 years of age or older (226 in 40 000) with invasive prostate cancer dies annually from his cancer. Serum PSA between 2 and 10 µg/L is used almost universally as an indication to biopsy the prostate. When 10–20 biopsies are commonly taken, it is not surprising that 40% of men are biopsy-positive for prostate cancer. Despite this reliance on serum PSA as an indication for biopsy, data at Stanford show no clinically useful relationship between preoperative serum PSA (in the range 2–10 mg/L) and the volume of Gleason grade 4/5 cancer or the volume of Gleason grades 3, 2, and 1 cancer, nor can we show any useful relationship of such preoperative PSA concentrations (2–10 µg/L) to biochemical PSA failure rates after radical prostatectomy. We urgently need a better serum marker for prostate cancer. Because PSA biochemical failure rates after radical prostatectomy are directly proportional to the amount of Gleason grade 4/5 cancer in the prostate, a serum marker of Gleason grade 4/5 carcinoma could be ideal.

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