Abstract
Free and total serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels were determined in 54 benign prostate hypertrophy (BPH) patients and 51 non-treated prostate cancer patients, and clinical usefulness of free to total PSA ratio (F/T ratio) was evaluated for screening of prostate cancer.
F/T ratio in patients with non-treated prostate cancer was significantly lower compared with BPH patients (p<0.0001). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis demonstrated that F/T ratio had higher reliability than total PSA alone for detecting prostate cancer in cases with relatively low PSA (4<PSA≤20). When using F/T ratio cut-off point of 15% for a diagnosis of prostate cancer in the patients with total PSA levels between 4 and 20 ng/ml, sensitivity and specificity was 84% and 61%, respectively. This study indicates that F/T ratio is useful for screening of prostate cancer in cases with relatively low PSA.
