Introduction and objective: Recent reports found that prostate cancer is the second most common cancer and second leading cause of cancer death in men.
Methods and results: 62 samples were obtained (30 of patients with cancer and 32 of patients with hyperplasia) collected from January 2004 to december 2007. Was conducted a clinical, experimental, transversal, comparative and descriptive trial. Were followed the inclusion (cancer or hyperplasia diagnosis), exclusion (patients not authorized to participate in the study or not candidates for resection of prostate) and elimination (damage tissue) criteria. Was detected by immunohistochemistry the presence of p22 phox NADPH oxidase subunit in patients with prostate cancer and prostatic hyperplasia from the formation of avidin-biotin complex using diaminobenzidine as a dye contrast. The statistical analysis was determined with t test (Graph Prism 3.0 software) considering p<0.05 for statistical differences. The results of the immunoreactivity of p22 phox in the stroma and gland of the prostate showed an increase in prostate cancer (8.45+/-3.6 and 25.08+/-7.5% p<0.0001, respectively) in comparison with the results for prostatic hyperplasia (4.8+/-2.8 and 6.7+/-3.1% p<0.0001, respectively).
Conclusions: The over-expression of the NADPH oxidase is involved in the prostate cancer. Moreover, we suggested that the NADPH oxidase, in combination with other classical markers, could be an indicator for the post-treatment monitoring of the patients diagnosed with hyperplasia and others minors pathologies of the prostate.