Pretreatment prostate specific antigen doubling time as prognostic factor in prostate cancer patients.

Despite the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) serum level commonly uses as tumor marker in diagnosis of prostate cancer, it seems that PSA doubling time (PSADT) could be more useful indicator of tumor behavior and of prognosis for patients. The results of hormone and radiation therapy were evaluated for 912 prostate cancer having at least 2 PSA tests before the treatment was started. Clustering procedure (selection of homogenous group) was performed by using PSADT as the classification marker. The rate of PSADT was estimated for different dissemination rate, age, Gleasons's score and education level. PSADT index inversely correlated with the rate of prostate cancer dissemination, Gleason's score and the level of education were directly correlated with the age of patients. Survival time was longer and PSADT index was higher in "slow" tumor growing subgroups in local, local-advanced and metastatic prostate cancer patients than these in "fast" subgroups. The study confirmed the prognostic value of pretreatment PSADT in prostate cancer patients independently of cancer progression. No significant relationship exists between the authors and the companies/organizations whose products or services may be referenced in this article.