BACKGROUND: It has been known that the National Institutes of Health category IV (NIH-IV) prostatitis increases the serum total prostate-specific antigen (tPSA) in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia. However, the effect of NIH-IV prostatitis on tPSA levels, which are used for staging prostate cancer (PCa) in patients with PCa, has not been previously investigated.AIM: To evaluate the effect of NIH-IV prostatitis on the tPSA which is used for staging PCa in patients with newly diagnosed PCa.METHOD: A total of 198 patients in whom PCa was detected were included in the study. Group 1 included patients with only PCa, while Group 2 included patients with prostatitis and PCa. The tPSA levels of patients in Groups 1 and 2 were compared.RESULTS: A total of 120 (61%) PCa (Group 1) and 78 (39%) PCa+NIH-IV prostatitis (Group 2) patients were identified. The tPSA levels of 70 (58%) patients in Group 1 and 22 (28%) patients in Group 2 were at the interval of <20 ng/ml (the mean levels of tPSA: 11.8±4.5 and 14.1±3.3, respectively). The tPSA levels of 50 (42%) patients in Group 1 and 56 (72%) patients in Group 2 were within the range of ?20 ng/ml (the mean levels of tPSA: 39.9±31.0 and 47.0±29.2, respectively). Within both the <20 ng/ml range and ?20 ng/ml range, the mean tPSA value in Group 2 was found to be significantly higher than that of Group 1 (p=0.03 and 0.01, respectively).CONCLUSION: The existence of NIH-IV prostatitis together with cancer in patients with PCa significantly increases the tPSA level which is used in staging the PCa.
Aged Humans