New ultrasensitive assay development by using monoclonal antibodies for detecting prostate-specific antigen

The Serono Maia Clone prostatic-specific antigen (PSA) kit incorporates an immunoradiometric assay for the measurement of PSA in the serum. The method can be used over a range of 0-100 ng/ml without dilution. Standard concentrations are 0, 0.4, 1, 5, 20, and 100 ng/ml. Up to date, 373 normal men, 89 normal women, 117 prostatic carcinoma, 98 other carcinoma, and 85 benign prostatic hypertrophy have been tested. The aim of this study is to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of a new immunoassay method for the determination of PSA, that could be able to evaluate low levels of PSA, resulted undetectable with other methods. This ability could be useful in patients treated with hormone-suppressive therapy or after radical prostatectomy. We have collected all low values present in samples examined. With the Serono Maia Clone PSA kit only 26.7% of these have been evaluated as 'out' values as opposed to 46.5% with the Hybritech kit.