AIMTo investigate whether the measurement of serum zinc may improve the detection of prostate cancer (PCa) in men who had total prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels higher than 4.1 ng/mL.

METHODSA mass screening for PCa of 3940 men over 50 years old was undertaken using total serum PSA. Of the 190 men (4.8%) with elevated PSA, 143 (3.6%) underwent a transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS)-guided biopsy of the prostate, and 42 men (1% of total and 29.3% of men undergoing biopsy) were found to have cancer. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC-AUC) were used to compare the diagnostic power of cancer detection by means of serum zinc, and free PSA/total PSA ratio (f/t).

RESULTSThe men with levels of serum zinc that ranged from 40 ng/mL-60 ng/mL, had an age-adjusted odds ratios(OR) of 5.0. A cutoff value of 100 microg/mL for serum zinc concentration provided a sensitivity of 90.5% and a specificity of 32.7% in elevated PSA range, and a sensitivity of 93.3% and specificity of 27.1% in gray zone, respectively. In the gray zone ranges of 4.1 ng/mL-10.0 ng/mL, the ROC-AUC for zinc was 73.0% higher than 62.7% of f/t PSA ratio and 56.7% of total PSA.

CONCLUSIONPCa displays a lower serum zinc concentration. The measurement of zinc levels improves PCa detection in the gray zone compared with the f/t PSA ratio and total PSA.

Area Under Curve ; Biopsy ; methods ; Humans ; Male ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; blood ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; blood ; diagnosis ; diagnostic imaging ; pathology ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Ultrasonography ; Zinc ; blood

AIMTo investigate the pathological features of the prostate biopsy through mass screening for prostate cancer in a Chinese cohort and their association with serum prostate specific antigen (PSA).

METHODSA total of 12027 Chinese men in Changchun were screened for prostate cancer by means of the serum total prostate specific antigen tPSA test (by Elisa assay). Transrectal ultrasound-guided systematic six-sextant biopsies were performed on those whose serum tPSA value was > 4.0 ng/mL and those who had obstructive symptoms (despite their tPSA value) and were subject to subsequent pathological analysis with the aid of the statistic software SPSS 10.0 (SPSS. Inc., Chicago. USA).

RESULTSOf the 12027 cases, 158 (including 137 patients whose serum tPSA values were 4.0 ng/mL and 21 patients [serum tPSA < 4.0 ng/mL] who had obstructive symptoms) undertook prostate biopsy. Of the 158 biopsies, 41 cases of prostatic carcinoma were found (25.9 %, 41/158). The moderately differentiated carcinoma and poorly differentiated carcinoma accounted for 61% and 34%, respectively. A significant linear positive correlation between the serum tPSA and the Gleason scores in the 41 cases of prostatic carcinoma (r = 0.312, P < 0.01) was established. A significant linear positive correlation between the serum tPSA value of the 41 prostatic carcinoma and the positive counts of carcinoma in sextant biopsies was established (r = 0.406, P < 0.01), indicating a significant linear relationship between serum tPSA and the size of tumor.

CONCLUSIONThis study was the first to conduct mass screening for prostate cancer by testing for serum tPSA values and the first to investigate the pathological features of prostate cancer in a cohort of Chinese men. Our results reveal that the moderately differentiated carcinoma is the most common type of prostate cancer. This study also has shown that the serum tPSA value in prostate cancer is associated with the Gleason score and the size of tumor.

Biopsy ; methods ; China ; Humans ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; blood ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; blood ; diagnosis ; diagnostic imaging ; pathology ; Ultrasonography

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the use of free/total prostate-specific antigen ratio (fPSA/tPSA ratio) in improving the early diagnosis of prostate cancer.

METHODSfPSA/tPSA ratio in the serum was analyzed prospectively in 187 men with tPSA ranging between 4.0 and 20.0 microg/L. All of them underwent ultrasound-guided sextant prostatic biopsies. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were calculated by SPSS 10.0 software.

RESULTSProstate cancer detection rates were 18.1% and 22.5% when tPSA was within the ranges of 4.0-10.0 g/L and 10.0-20.0 g/L respectively. fPSA/tPSA ratio was more significant than tPSA in all the men. When the cut-off value of fPSA/tPSA ratio was set at 0.25, 90.5% and 87.5% of cancers could be detected; and 26.7% and 11.3% of biopsies could be avoided within the tPSA ranges of 4.0-10.0 g/L and 10.0-20.0 g/L, respectively.

CONCLUSIONThe use of fPSA/tPSA ratio can improve prostate cancer detection and reduce unnecessary biopsies when tPSA is within the range of 4.0-10.0 microg/L and 10.0-20.0 microg/L.

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Area Under Curve ; Early Diagnosis ; Humans ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Middle Aged ; Prospective Studies ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; blood ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; Sensitivity and Specificity