title: High testosterone levels in prostate tissue obtained by needle biopsy correlate with poor-prognosis factors in prostate cancer patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is currently no consensus on the correlations between androgen concentrations in prostate tissue and blood and stage and pathological grade of prostate cancer. In this study, we used a newly-developed ultra-sensitive liquid-chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method to measure testosterone (T) and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) concentrations in blood and needle biopsy prostate specimens from patients with prostate cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed androgen levels in 196 men diagnosed with prostate cancer. All patients had undergone systematic needle biopsy, and an additional needle biopsy from the peripheral zone was conducted for the simultaneous determination of T and DHT. We analyzed the relationships between T and DHT levels in tissue and blood and Gleason score, clinical stage, and percentage of positive biopsy cores, using multivariate analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median T and DHT levels in blood were 3551.0 pg/mL and 330.5 pg/mL, respectively. There was a strong correlation between serum T and DHT. The median T and DHT levels in prostate tissue were 0.5667 pg/mg and 7.0625 pg/mg, respectively. In multivariate analysis, serum prostate-specific antigen and tissue T levels were significantly associated with poor prognosis; high T levels in prostate tissue were significantly related to high Gleason score (p = 0.041), advanced clinical stage (p = 0.002), and a high percentage of positive biopsy cores (p = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study indicate that high T levels in prostate tissue are related to high Gleason score, advanced clinical stage, and a high percentage of positive biopsy cores in patients with prostate cancer. T level in needle biopsy specimens may therefore be a useful prognostic factor in prostate cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine, Yokohama, Japan. miyoyasu@med.yokohama-cu.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Yasuhide
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miyoshi
authors.forename: Hiroji
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Uemura
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Umemoto
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sakamaki
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morita
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shibata
authors.forename: Naoya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Masumori
authors.forename: Tomohiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ichikawa
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mizokami
authors.forename: Yoshiki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sugimura
authors.forename: Norio
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nonomura
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.forename: Seijiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Honma
authors.forename: Masaoki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harada
authors.forename: Yoshinobu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kubota
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D013196:Dihydrotestosterone / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D007610:Kallikreins / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D011379:Prognosis; D011467:Prostate / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology; D013739:Testosterone / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D013196:Dihydrotestosterone; D013739:Testosterone; C549870:KLK3 protein, human; D007610:Kallikreins; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen