High Gleason scores and lower prostate-specific antigen levels in a single institution over the past decade

Recent trends suggest that carcinoma of the prostate is being detected at earlier stages in its natural history; our objective is to determine if this trend is accompanied by changes in tumor characteristics. Two hundred ninety-three men from 1990-1993, 308 from 1994-1996, and 323 from 1998-2000 with newly diagnosed prostate cancer have been evaluated at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. We compared the Gleason score, mean age, and the mean prostate-specific antigen (PSA) among the 3 cohorts. The same pathologist reviewed all the pathology slides. A high Gleason prostate cancer score was defined as > or = 7. One hundred seventy-two patients (53.3%) were found to have a high Gleason score in 1998-2000 compared to 116 patients (39.5%) in 1990-1993; the difference was statistically significant (P = 0.0009, Yates-corrected chi2 test). From 1994-1996, 141 patients (45.7%) had a high Gleason score. The mean PSA in high Gleason score, localized prostate cancer was 7.52 ng/mL (range, 0.9-15.3 ng/mL) in the 1998-2000 group, 9.09 ng/mL (range, 1.7-20 ng/mL) in the 1994-1996 group, and 12.6 ng/mL (range, 3.9-25 ng/mL) in the 1990-1993 group. The difference between these groups was statistically significant (P = 0.000018, one-way analysis of variance test). The mean ages for patients in the 3 cohorts were 64.4, 64.5, and 65.2 years of age for the 1998-2000, 1994-1996, and 1990-1993 groups, respectively (P = 0.702). These data suggest a trend toward the diagnosis of more aggressive prostate cancer, with higher Gleason score, and lower PSA in newly diagnosed patients. Continued screening for prostate cancer is resulting in the diagnosis of more unfavorable cancers.