Morphological features correlation with serum tumour markers in prostatic carcinoma

Abstract

Objective: To find out Gleason grades, scores and to see the correlation of these morphological features with tumour markers in prostatic carcinoma.

Design: A descriptive study.

Place and duration of study: The study was conducted at the Departments of Histopathology and Chemical Pathology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, over a period of one year.

Materials and methods: Fifty cases of prostatic carcinoma were studied. Gleason grades and score of tumour were determined by doing haematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining. Pre-operative serum prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) assays were carried out in these cases.

Results: The patients seen were between 50-102 years of age with an average of 70.9 years. There were 49 cases of adenocarcinoma and 01 case of mixed adeno and transitional cell carcinoma of prostate. Twenty-eight (56%) patients had Gleason score of 5-7. Twenty-nine (58%) patients were having serum PSA levels between 10.0 ng/ml and 50.0 ng/ml. Thirteen (26%) cases showed PSA assays >50 ng/ml. The sensitivity of PSA test was 84 % in these cases. Thirty-five (70%) patients were having PAP values >3.7 U/l (sensitivity 70 %).

Conclusion: The Gleason grading system is a specific morphological predictor. The serum PSA showed better sensitivity and specificity with Gleason grades and scores as compared to serum PAP. The serum PAP levels showed better correlation with morphological features as compared to serum PSA.