Purpose: Prostate cancer detection at levels of 2.5 to 4.0 ng/ml in a Japanese urological referral population has not been elucidated. The purpose of this study is to investigate the cancer detection rate and clinical relevance of prostate cancer in this PSA range.
Materials and methods: All urological patients 70 years or younger tested for prostate cancer were studied. There were 550, 97, 112 and 52 patients with a PSA of less than 2.5, 2.5 to 4.0, 4.1 to 10.0 and more than 10.0 ng/ml, respectively. Transrectal 10-core prostate biopsy was performed in 80 (82%) of the 97 patients with a PSA of 2.5 to 4.0 ng/ml and 102 (91%) of the 112 patients with a PSA of 4.1 to 10.0 ng/ml.
Results: Cancer detection rates in patients who underwent biopsy were 26.3% and 34.3% at PSA levels 2.5 to 4.0 and 4.1 to 10.0 ng/ml, respectively. High grade cancers with Gleason score 7 or more were found in 19.0% and 22.9% of patients with cancer with PSA 2.5 to 4.0 and 4.1 to 10.0 ng/ml, respectively. No significant difference was found between the 2 groups in pathological findings on biopsy, including percent positive cores (16.7% vs 20.0%, p = 0.10), maximum cancer length (25.0% vs 30.0%, p = 0.28) and maximum percent cancer length (2.0 vs 3.0 mm, p = 0.17).
Conclusions: Japanese urological referral patients develop prostate cancer quite commonly even if their serum PSA levels are 2.5 to 4.0 ng/ml. Since these cancer cases include high grade, clinically significant cancer, prostate biopsy might be considered at least for selected cases in this PSA range.