Beyond PSA-Can Systemic Inflammatory Indices Improve Prostate Cancer Detection?

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) remains the primary biomarker for prostate cancer detection; however, its limited specificity leads to unnecessary biopsies. Systemic inflammatory indices derived from routine blood tests have been proposed as potential adjunctive diagnostic tools. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of these indices in patients undergoing prostate biopsy for suspected prostate cancer.

A retrospective observational study was conducted, including 307 patients who underwent transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy for elevated PSA between January 2021 and January 2023. Patients were classified as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) or prostate cancer (PCa) based on histopathological findings. Inflammatory indices, including neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), Systemic Inflammation Response Index (SIRI), and aggregate index of systemic inflammation (AISI), were calculated. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were performed to assess diagnostic performance.

PCa was diagnosed in 65.1% of patients. Several inflammatory indices were significantly higher in the PCa group. Among them, AISI showed diagnostic performance comparable to PSA. The integration of inflammatory indices into multivariable models improved predictive accuracy, with the combined model demonstrating the highest discriminative ability. In contrast, these markers showed limited capacity in distinguishing tumour aggressiveness.

Systemic inflammatory indices are associated with prostate cancer presence and may enhance diagnostic performance when used alongside PSA. However, their role remains complementary, as they provide limited value in risk stratification and should not be considered standalone diagnostic tools.