[The usefulness of prostate-specific antigen assay for the early detection and follow up of the prostate cancer].

PSA has been widely used as a tumor marker for screening, diagnosis and monitoring of prostate cancer. We demonstrated the 3 of 7 (43%) patients with a serum PSA level of < or = 4 ng/ml, 12 of 24 (50%) patients with a serum PSA level ranging from 4.1 to 10.0 ng/ml, 10 of 17 (59%) patients with a serum PSA level ranging from 10.1 to 20 ng/ml, 6 of 8 (75%) patients with a serum PSA level ranging from 20.1 to 30.0 ng/ml, 5 of 6 (83%) patients with a serum PSA level ranging from 30.1 to 40.0 ng/ml, 29 to 29 (100%) patients with serum PSA level of > or = 40.1 ng/ml had prostate cancer. It is recommended that the use of PSA and DRE in combination is important as a diagnostic procedure for the early detection of prostate cancer.