[Detection of prostate-specific antigen mRNA in preoperative peripheral blood of patients with prostate cancer: relationship to pathological parameters of the surgical specimens].
OBJECTIVE
Up to 40% of surgically treated prostate cancers are bound to be understaged by using current diagnostic modalities. To improve on current staging methods for prostate cancer, we evaluated whether nested reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) mRNA can improve preoperative staging of prostate cancer.


METHODS
From May 1996 through November 1997, 30 patients with prostate cancer (T1-T3) were evaluated for PSAmRNA in their peripheral blood by nested RT-PCR before radical retropubic prostatectomy.


RESULTS
A highly sensitive RT-PCR assay employed detected one PSA-expressing cell (LNCaP) diluted into ten million mononuclear cells. All 15 controls, including 9 women, showed negative PSAmRNA in their peripheral blood, whereas 16 of 30 (53%) patients with prostate cancer showed positive PSAmRNA in their preoperative peripheral blood. Interestingly, 7 patients with positive PSAmRNA had pathologically organ-confined prostate cancer. No significant relationship was demonstrated between positive PSA-PCR results and clinico-pathological parameters such as clinical stage, pretherapeutic serum PSA, pathological stage, seminal vesicle invasion, lymph node metastasis, vascular invasion, or Gleason sum.


CONCLUSIONS
Our present study showed that the results of PCR-based PSAmRNA assay had no significant association with clinico-pathological parameters. However, the prognostic significance of detecting the circulating prostate-specific signals requires a longer follow-up, which is currently under study.
Iinuma
M
M
Department of Urology, Akita University School of Medicine.
Sato
K
K
Ogawa
O
O
Sasaki
R
R
Kato
T
T
D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000097:blood; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen