Observations of pretreatment prostate-specific antigen doubling time in 107 patients referred for definitive radiotherapy.
OBJECTIVE
To determine pretreatment prostate-specific antigen doubling times (PSADT) in patients referred for definitive radiotherapy.


METHODS
One hundred and seven patients with histologically proven nonmetastatic prostate cancer and an elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) who were referred for radiation therapy had three serum PSA values obtained prior to the start of definitive therapy. Prostate-specific antigen doubling times were calculated by linear regression.


RESULTS
Prostate-specific antigen values increased during the period of observation in 78 patients (73%). Forty-three patients (40%) had calculated PSADT of less than 2 years and of those patients with pretreatment serum PSA values of greater than 10 ng/mL more than 50% has calculated PSADT of less than 2 years.


CONCLUSIONS
A significant minority of patients referred for radiotherapy have calculated PSADT of less than 2 years. The significance of this relatively fast growth rate is as yet undetermined, but suggests that patients referred for radiotherapy may have aggressive disease prior to treatment.
Lee
W R
WR
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Department of Radiation Oncology, Philadelphia, PA 19177.
Hanks
G E
GE
Corn
B W
BW
Schultheiss
T E
TE
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy; D000368:Aged; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy; D013997:Time Factors
D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen