The clinical importance of serum propsa measurements in patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy (BHP) (hyperplasia)

Objective: PSA is a single chain glycoprotein, which contains 237 amino acids and 4 carbohydrates. Its molecular mass is about 34 kDa. It has been reported that the pro forms of PSA are more specific markers of prostate cancer compared to the total PSA, and furthermore preferably they can detect more aggressive forms of the disease. It is aimed that serum proPSA should be measured in patients with BPH and that it should be employed as a pre-biopsy screening test intended to be used by clinicians for patients. Materials and Methods: A study group is formed consisting of a total 40 BPH patients and 29 BPH non-patients. The patients, who had previously undergone biopsy and who were diagnosed with definite BPH, were not included in the study. On the blood samples taken from subjects included in the study, the Access Hybritech PSA test is run by using ProPSA ELISA kit to measure total PSA, free PSA and free / total PSA. Results: There is no statistically significant difference between the mean age of the subjects and the control group. A statistically significant difference is found between the subjects and the control group, when the values of proPSA, total PSA, free PSA and free PSA / total PSA were examined (p <0.05). Conclusion: It is concluded that in case of future studies with larger samples that the use of pre-biopsy proPSA as tool in differentiating prostate cancer and BPH will be widespread. Keywords: BPH, proPSA, free PSA, total PSA, free / total PSA