[The investigation of age-specific PSA reference range as the cut-off values in the mass screening for prostatic cancer].
BACKGROUND
The objective of this study is to determine age-specific PSA reference ranges in Japanese healthy men and investigate the effectiveness of these ranges as the cut-off values in the mas screening for prostatic cancer.


METHODS
The study included a total of 5,206 male aged from 55 to 89 years old who wished to submit the mass screening for prostatic cancer in an urban area of Kyoto in 1995-1997, but had no evident prostatic cancer. We measured serum PSA levels by the filter paper method (Delfia PSA kit).


RESULTS
We found the increase in serum PSA levels with the advancing age. With the 95th percentile for serum PSA as the upper limit, the age-specific PSA reference ranges were determined to be 2.1 ng/ml for patients aged 55 to 59 years old, 3.2 ng/ml for 60 to 69 years old, 4.4 ng/ml for 70 to 79 years old, 6.5 ng/ml for 80 to 89 years old. If we used these ranges as the cut-off values in the mass screening this time, five cases from 76 to 89 years old of prostatic cancer were overlooked.


CONCLUSIONS
We found the increase in serum PSA levels with advancing age. But the positive proof of using this range to a mass screening for prostatic cancer was not certified, because time incidence of prostatic cancer in the examinees was uncertain and there is a possibility of overlooking some cases.
Nakanishi
H
H
Department of Urology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine.
Nakao
M
M
Nomoto
T
T
Miki
T
T
Nakagawa
S
S
Kitamura
K
K
Watanabe
H
H
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012016:Reference Values
D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen