[Usefulness of PSA density (PSAD) in the differential diagnosis between prostatic adenocarcinoma and benign ++...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of PSAD in distinguishing benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) from prostate cancer. The Authors studied 50 patients, 30 affected with BPH and 20 with prostate cancer. All patients were submitted to: digital rectal examination, trans-rectal ultrasonography and evaluation of serum PSA, before performing any prostatic manipulation. All clinical data were confirmed by histological diagnosis. Although the mean PSAD value was greater significantly in the patients' group affected with prostate cancer, it was impossible to define a PSAD cut off value useful to distinguish malignant from benign prostatic diseases. Similar findings have been observed in a sub-group patients with serum PSA concentration of 3.5-15 ng/ml. The PSAD cut off value of 0.10, proposed from some Authors, showed low specificity. On the contrary a cut off value of 0.15 is not sufficiently sensitive: an elevated number of cancer would have missed using this parameter alone. Therefore, the combined use of clinical findings and serum PSA is recommended to improve the early diagnosis of prostate cancer.