[Clinical study of tumor markers in prostatic carcinoma--an investigation on the simultaneous measurement of prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), prostatic antigen (PA) and gamma-seminoprotein (gamma-Sm)]

Abstract

Measurements of prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), prostatic antigen (PA) and gamma-seminoprotein (gamma-Sm) have been found to be clinically useful in the diagnosis of prostatic carcinoma, but, the usefulness of simultaneous measurement has not yet been elucidated. We determined the clinical significance of simultaneous measurement of these markers, especially, the additional measurement of PA or gamma-Sm to PAP in prostatic carcinoma. Each measurement of PAP, PA and gamma-Sm yielded a very low "false" positive rate (0-6.5%) in patients with non-prostatic urogenital disease or benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), which was consistent with the results reported so far by other researchers. Eighteen patients with newly diagnosed prostatic carcinoma of a low stage showed a positive rate of PAP in 16.7%, PA in 33.3% and gamma-Sm in 38.9%. Forty patients having a high stage had a positive rate of 67.5% for each of the markers. In patients with BPH, the positive rate was elevated in only 2.6, 5.2 or 3.9% by the additional measurement of PA or gamma-Sm to PAP, or that of gamma-Sm to PA, respectively. This implied that the additional measurement of other markers to PAP or PA produced only a low elevation of the "false" positive rate. The positive rate in patients with prostatic carcinoma of low stage was increased by the additional measurement of PA or gamma-Sm to PAP or that of gamma-Sm to PA. This suggests that in patients with low stage carcinoma, assay with these combinations would be clinically useful to monitor the patient's clinical course.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)