Prostate-specific antigen concentration: influence of age and ethnicity

This pilot study evaluated the influence of age and ethnicity on serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentration in Asian and white men without a clinical diagnosis of prostate cancer. Between October and December 1993, 1260 patients who underwent serum PSA determination (Hybritech Tandem-R assay, San Diego, California) at Straub Clinic & Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. Of these, 885 (70%) men aged 40 to 79 years were either Asian (Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, and Korean) or white and had a serum PSA less than 10.0 ng/ml. The PSA for the entire group was 2.1 +/- 2.0 ng/ml (mean +/- SD). PSA correlated with age (r = 0.31, p = 0.0001) and age accounted for 10% of the variance in serum PSA. Using the regression formula, serum PSA increased 2.5% (0.06 ng/ml) per year of age. The entire study group was about equally divided between whites (49%) and Asians (51%). Nearly three-fourths of the Asian men were Japanese. The mean PSA was very close in the Asian and white groups. There was no direct correlation between serum PSA and ethnicity (r = 0.03; p = 0.3201). Ethnicity contributed 0.1% of the variance in PSA. In conclusion, this preliminary study suggests serum PSA increases with age in Asian and white men without a clinical diagnosis of prostate cancer. No difference was found in PSA between men of Asian and white ethnicity.