The issue of prostate cancer evaluation in men with elevated prostate-specific antigen and chronic prostatitis

Elevated levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in men may result from a variety of causes, such as prostate cancer, benign prostatic hyperplasia, acute urinary tract infection, and bacterial prostatitis. In recent years, several studies have also demonstrated a relationship between chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome and increased PSA levels. However, asymptomatic patients are not routinely screened for this diagnosis before transrectal biopsy is performed to rule out prostate cancer. These asymptomatic men with elevated PSA levels frequently have evidence of inflammation when their expressed prostatic secretions are examined, or on their prostate biopsy specimens. This raises the problem of appropriate evaluation in the presence of chronic prostatitis and elevated PSA levels--not only in prostate cancer screening programmes, but also in cancer-negative biopsy findings. Evidence from the literature indicates that antimicrobial treatment may lower the PSA levels to what is considered the normal range. Despite that, general recommendations for the practical management are lacking and undetected prostate cancer in men with chronic prostatitis remains a difficult issue.