title: Digital rectal examination as a prostate cancer-screening method in a country with a low incidence of prostate cancer.
abstract: The objective of this study was to evaluate the value of using digital rectal examination (DRE) for prostate cancer diagnosis in an Asian population. Patients with serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels ranging from 2.5 to 19.9 ng/ml underwent transrectal ultrasonography-guided prostate biopsies. Patients were divided into two groups: the normal DRE group (n=721) and the abnormal DRE group (n=192). The cancer detection rate was higher in the abnormal DRE group (47.4%) than in the normal DRE group (23.0%) (P<0.001). However, the detection rates in these two groups were not significantly different in men 45-59 years old as well as in men with low PSA levels (2.5-3.9 ng/ml). In all subjects, the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves for positive biopsies were 60.0% (95% confidence interval (CI), 55.7-64.3%, P<0.001). However, in the subgroup analysis, the predictive power of the DRE was not significant in men 45-59 years old. In addition, DREs of patients with low PSA levels had no discriminative ability. The pathological features of the prostate biopsies were not significantly different between the two groups in subjects 45-59 years old and in subjects with PSA levels from 2.5 to 3.9 ng/ml. Our data indicate that DREs increase the probability of cancer detection. However, our findings also raise the question, 'Are DREs really useful for cancer detection in younger men and men with low PSA levels in the Asian population?'
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Seoul Veterans Hospital, 6-2 Doonchon dong, Kangdong ku, Seoul 134-791, Korea.
authors.forename: H B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Shim
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: H K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Ku
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy; D051517:Digital Rectal Examination; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014463:Ultrasonography
chemical_list: D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen