Efficacy of skeletal alkaline phosphatase and prostate-specific antigen in the diagnosis of bone metastasis in cancer of the prostate.
OBJECTIVE
To study the efficacy of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and skeletal alkaline phosphatase (SAP) as staging markers in discriminating patients with cancer of the prostate (CaP) with (M+) and without bone metastases (M0).


METHODS
73 patients with untreated CaP entered the study. After staging the patients were divided into 3 groups: group I, patients with CaP and bone metastases (n = 21); group II, patients with locally advanced CaP without bone metastases (n = 26), and group III, patients with clinically localized CaP without bone metastases (n = 26).


RESULTS
None of the M0 patients but 71% of the M+ patients exhibited an increased SAP. A corresponding cutoff point of 100 ng/ml for PSA showed that 19% of M0 patients and 71% of the M+ patients exhibited a value of >100 ng/ml. This resulted in a sensitivity and specificity of 71 and 100% of SAP and 71 and 81% for PSA, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
SAP could become a useful marker in the evaluation of patients with newly diagnosed CaP as it provides additional information concerning the skeletal status of these patients.
Wolff
J M
JM
Department of Urology, RWTH Aachen, Germany.
Ittel
T
T
Borchers
H
H
Brauers
A
A
Jakse
G
G
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase / Q000097:blood*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000556:secondary*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen