Complexed prostate-specific antigen as a staging tool for prostate cancer: a prospective study in 420 men

Over time, the parameters commonly used to predict pathological stage in men with localized prostate cancer have changed, and there is now little stratification in pretreatment prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentrations, clinical stages, and biopsy Gleason scores. This prospective study evaluated the utility of complexed PSA (cPSA ) for predicting organ-confined disease in a contemporary series of subjects. The age range of the 420 men was 39 to 72 years (58.2 +/- 6 years). Specimens were collected before radical prostatectomy, and total and free PSA (Hybritech Tandem assays, Beckman Access; Beckman Coulter, Inc., Brea, CA) and total and cPSA (Bayer Immuno 1; Bayer Corporation, Tarrytown, NY) were measured. Pathologic stage was determined from the prostatectomy specimen. Of the 420 men, 316 (75%) had organ-confined disease, and 104 (25%) had non-organ-confined disease (20.7% had extraprostatic extension, 2.6% had seminal vesicle involvement, and 1.4% had positive lymph nodes). Prebiopsy Gleason score distribution was as follows: organ-confined organ-confined, 6 (87%) and 7 (10%); non-organ-confined, 6 (66%) and 7 (30%). Of patients with organ-confined disease, 75% had clinical stage T1c disease compared with 56% for non-organ-confined disease. Using univariate logistic regression, the following variables predicted organ-confined disease: biopsy Gleason score, clinical stage, total PSA, percent free PSA, cPSA, percent cPSA (P <0.05). A multivariate model with biopsy Gleason score, clinical stage, and cPSA had a receiver operator characteristic area under the curve of 0.69. Replacing cPSA with total PSA in this model provided similar information. cPSA and total PSA were highly correlated (r = 0.985). In summary, cPSA was equivalent to total PSA in predicting organ-confined disease. Present and future models and nomograms using PSA as an indicator of pathological stage could consider use of cPSA.