Korean J Urol.  1988 Aug;29(4):517-524.

Immunohistochemical Study of Prostate-Specific Antigen and Prostate-Specific Acid Phosphatase

• Lee HM
• Kim CW
• Kim YK

Abstract

Immunohistochemical method was used to study prostate-specific antigen(PSA) and prostate-specific acid phosphatase(PSAP) in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections of 37 patients with prostatic adenocarcinoma, 5 benign prostatic hyperplasias, 1 metastatic adenocarcinoma of bone originated from prostate and 1 prostatic transitional cell carcinoma. The prostatic adenocarcinomas were graded from 2 to 10 according to the Gleason grading system. 36 of the 37 prostatic adenocarcinomas were positive for PSA and 35 were positive for PSAP. All of the 5 cases of benign hyperplasia were positive for both PSA and PSAP with a great extent of staining. One case of the metastatic adenocarcinoma of bone originated from prostate was positive for both PSA and PSAP and one case of prostatic transitional cell carcinoma was negative for either PSA or PSAP. Some of the high grade prostatic adenocarcinomas stained less extensively or failed to stain for PSA and PSAP. So, in poorly differentiated lesions, the lack of both antigens does not unequivocally eliminate the possibility of prostatic adenocarcinoma. When results of PSA immunostaining were compared with those of PSAP, the PSA was superior to the PSAP for labeling prostatic tissue andstained more extensively within a given tumor than PSAP.

Keyword

PSA; Prostate specific acid phosphatase

MeSH Terms

Acid Phosphatase*
Adenocarcinoma
Carcinoma, Transitional Cell
Humans
Hyperplasia
Neoplasm Grading
Prostate
Prostate-Specific Antigen*
Prostatic Hyperplasia
Acid Phosphatase
Prostate-Specific Antigen