J Clin Pathol Qual Control.  2001 Jun;23(1):221-225.

Reevaluation of the Reference Range of Prostate-specific Antigen in Korean Men

• Lee MK
• Park YK
• Park AJ

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Prostate specific antigen (PSA) is known as the most sensitive marker for detecting prostate cancer. Nevertheless, PSA assay lacks sufficient sensitivity and specificity as a tumor marker for early detection of prostate cancer. To reevaluate the traditional reference range for PSA, we examined age-specific reference range and the value of PSA about clinical status of prostate cancer.
METHODS
From June 1997 through July 1998, we measured serum PSA in 2,009 men with no clinical evidance of prostate cancer. We studied 75 cases of biopsy-proven prostate adenocarcinoma.
RESULTS
Average serum PSA of 2,009 Korean healthy men was 0.96+/-0.73 ng/ml (mean+/-standard deviation) and the serum PSA concentration is correlated with age. The upper reference limit for serum PSA (97.5 percentile) for men aged 20 to 29 years was 1.98 ng/ml ; for 30 to 39 years was 2.53 ng/ml; for 40 to 49 years was 2.32 ng/ml; for 50 to 59 years was 3.19 ng/ml; for 60 to 69 years was 4.19 ng/ml; and for 70 to 79 years was 3.99 ng/ml. Most of patients at the time of diagnosis had late-stage cancer. Traditional reference ranges and age-specific reference ranges provided identical cancer detection rate.
CONCLUSIONS
The influences of age on serum PSA are thought to be weaker in Korean. Our study suggested that the use of age-specific reference ranges did not improve the clinical value of PSA screening.

MeSH Terms

Adenocarcinoma
Diagnosis
Humans
Male
Mass Screening
Prostate
Prostate-Specific Antigen*
Prostatic Neoplasms
Reference Values*
Sensitivity and Specificity
Prostate-Specific Antigen