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Updated: Oct 1, 2026
Microarray-based Identification of Individual HERV Loci Expression: Application to Biomarker Discovery in Prostate Cancer
Published on: November 2, 2013
Correlation of Peripheral Vein Tumour Marker Levels, Internal Iliac Vein Tumour Marker Levels and Radical
Cormac Farrelly1,2, Priti Lal3, Scott O Trerotola4
1Division of Interventional Radiology, Department of Radiology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 1 Silverstein, 3400 Spruce St, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA. farrellycormac@gmail.com.
Purpose:
To correlate prostate-specific antigen (PSA), free to total PSA percentage (fPSA%) and prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) levels from peripheral and pelvic venous samples with prostatectomy specimens in patients with prostate adenocarcinoma and borderline elevation of PSA.
Materials And Methods:
In this prospective institutional review board approved study, 7 patients with biopsy proven prostate cancer had a venous sampling procedure prior to prostatectomy (mean 3.2 days, range 1-7). Venous samples were taken from a peripheral vein (PVS), the right internal iliac vein, a deep right internal iliac vein branch, left internal iliac vein and a deep left internal iliac vein branch. Venous sampling results were compared to tumour volume, laterality, stage and grade in prostatectomy surgical specimens.
Results:
Mean PVS PSA was 4.29, range 2.3-6 ng/ml. PSA and PAP values in PVS did not differ significantly from internal iliac or deep internal iliac vein samples (p > 0.05). fPSA% was significantly higher in internal iliac (p = 0.004) and deep internal iliac (p = 0.003) vein samples compared to PVS. One of 7 patients had unilateral tumour only. This patient, with left-sided tumour, had a fPSA% of 6, 6, 6, 14 and 12 in his peripheral, right internal iliac, deep right internal iliac branch, left internal iliac and deep left internal iliac branch samples respectively. There were no adverse events.
Conclusion:
fPSA%, unlike total PSA or PAP, is significantly higher in pelvic vein compared to peripheral vein samples when prostate cancer is present. Larger studies including patients with higher PSA values are warranted to further investigate this counterintuitive finding.
