Source
Department of Urology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan. t-imamo@pg7.so-net.ne.jp
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
Pretreatment serum level of testosterone (T) is a potential prognostic factor for prostate cancer. The present study was conducted to evaluate the clinical significance of pretreatment serum T level in patients with clinically localized prostate cancer.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
The subjects were 82 clinically localized prostate cancer patients treated with radical prostatectomy, whose pretreatment T levels were recorded. We investigated clinical and pathological factors such as pretreatment serum T level, age, pretreatment PSA or pathological Gleason score concerning the association with pathological stage and biochemical recurrence.
RESULTS:
The mean pretreatment T level was significantly lower in patients with non-organ-confined prostate cancer (pT3-T4, N1; 3.44+/-1.19 ng/ml) than in patients with organ-confined cancer (pT2; 4.33+/-1.42 ng/ml) (p=0.0078). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that pathological Gleason score, pretreatment serum T level and pretreatment PSA were significant predictors of extraprostatic disease. When the patients were divided into high and low T level groups according to the median value, pretreatment T levels were not significantly associated with PSA recurrence rates (p=0.7973).
CONCLUSIONS:
A lower pretreatment T level appears to be predictive of extraprostatic disease in patients with localized prostate cancer.