Evaluation of serum prostate-specific antigen in urologic cancers.

Serum prostate-specific antigen (PA), a new tumor marker of prostate cancer, was evaluated with an eznyme immunoassay (EIA) in various urologic cancer patients and benign prostatic diseases in Japanese. Sera of prostate cancer patients before treatment (n = 27) revealed a range of PA concentrations from 0.12-23 ng/ml with a mean (+/- SD) of 5.78 +/- 6.85 ng/ml, while that of patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) (n = 27) showed from less than 0.10 to 2.6 ng/ml with 0.84 +/- 0.81 ng/ml (mean +/- SD). The mean serum PA levels in nonprostatic cancers were calculated as follows: bladder cancer (n - 21), 0.77 +/- 0.55 ng/ml; renal pelvis or ureteral cancer (n = 6), 0.46 +/- 0.47 ng/ml; renal adenocarcinoma (n equal to 6), 1.07 +/- 0.77 ng/ml; other urologic cancers (n = 6), 0.55 +/- 0.52 ng/ml. Serum PA ranged from less than 0.10 to 1.1 ng/ml in patients with prostatitis (n = 5). A significant statistical difference in serum PA levels between prostate cancer and other groups was recognized. These results suggested that an elevation of serum PA value was highly specific to prostate cancer in urological malignancies. The evaluation of serum PA may be of great value in the detection of prostate cancer.