title: Deoxythymidine kinase in the staging of prostatic adenocarcinoma.
abstract: The role of prostate-specific antigen in the management of prostatic adenocarcinoma is still not fully ascertained. Its place in the monitoring of patients who have undergone radical treatment is without question but its role in the primary assessment of a lesion is a point of continuous discussion. This study reports the analysis of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in 92 patients with different stages of prostatic adenocarcinoma prior to treatment; in the case of the localized lesions, this was based to a great extent on the findings at lymphadenectomy. Apart from PSA analysis, deoxythymidine kinase (dTK) analyses were also performed in an attempt to discover whether the latter could provide additional information about the tumor load in the different patient categories, viz. those with lymph node involvement (group 1), those with lymph node involvement but without distant metastases (group 2), and those with disseminated disease (group 3). The median PSA and dTK values in groups 1-3 were 6.5 micrograms/L and 2.7 U/microliter, 16 micrograms/L and 2.6 U/microL, and 90 micrograms/L and 7.8 U/microL, respectively. If the two analyses were used concomitantly, they could differentiate true localized disease from metastatic in approximately 92% of cases. The combination should prove of value in the primary assessment of a patient with a newly diagnosed prostatic adenocarcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Akademiska sjukhuset, University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Letocha
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eklöv
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gronowitz
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Norlén
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nilsson
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000097:blood / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D006801:Humans; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology; D013937:Thymidine Kinase / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D013937:Thymidine Kinase; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen