Prognostic significance of Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) rate of change in patients with advanced prostate cancer

Abstract

Aim: To investigate the prognostic significance of Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) rate of change in patients with advanced prostate cancer. Patients and Methods: A total of forty-nine male patients aged between 42 and 84 years with advanced prostate cancer receiving therapy of maximum androgen bloackade were enrolled and had their serum prostate specific antigen value and rate of change assessed over a period of 48 weeks. Results: The rate of change of prostate specific antigen at week 12 of the 40 patients with response (complete/partial) shows that the PSA level at week 12 had changed (reduced) by an average of 122% from the baseline value, while the median rate of change was 97% compared to patients with either no change/progression of disease status whose PSA level at week 12 had changed by only 11.7% and the median rate of change was 0%. Conclusion: It could therefore be concluded that PSA rate of change is of prognostic significance in patients with advanced prostatic cancer.

Keywords

• advanced prostate cancer
• prostate specific antigen (psa)
• rate of change of psa
• prognostic significance