title: Pretreatment serum testosterone level as a predictive factor of pathological stage in localized prostate cancer patients treated with radical prostatectomy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Pretreatment serum level of testosterone (T) is a potential prognostic factor for prostate cancer. The present study was conducted to evaluate the clinical significance of pretreatment serum T level in patients with clinically localized prostate cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  The subjects were 82 clinically localized prostate cancer patients treated with radical prostatectomy, whose pretreatment T levels were recorded. We investigated clinical and pathological factors such as pretreatment serum T level, age, pretreatment PSA or pathological Gleason score concerning the association with pathological stage and biochemical recurrence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean pretreatment T level was significantly lower in patients with non-organ-confined prostate cancer (pT3-T4, N1; 3.44+/-1.19 ng/ml) than in patients with organ-confined cancer (pT2; 4.33+/-1.42 ng/ml) (p=0.0078). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that pathological Gleason score, pretreatment serum T level and pretreatment PSA were significant predictors of extraprostatic disease. When the patients were divided into high and low T level groups according to the median value, pretreatment T levels were not significantly associated with PSA recurrence rates (p=0.7973).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A lower pretreatment T level appears to be predictive of extraprostatic disease in patients with localized prostate cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan. t-imamo@pg7.so-net.ne.jp
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Imamoto
authors.forename: Hiroyoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fukasawa
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shimbo
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Inahara
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Komiya
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ueda
authors.forename: Taizo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shiraishi
authors.forename: Tomohiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ichikawa
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000097:blood; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D011468:Prostatectomy; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D013739:Testosterone / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D013739:Testosterone