Correlations among prostatic-specific antigen, Gleason score, staging and grading in patients after radical prostatectomy.

Abstract

To evaluate the correlation between Gleason grade, T stage, tumour grade and preoperative prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level (< or > 20 ng/mL) in patients after radical prostatectomy (RP). The serum total PSA level was measured 3 months before surgery in 87 patients who then underwent RP between 1994 and 2000; the tumour specimens were staged and graded. There were 57 (66%) patients with a PSA level of < 20 ng/mL; in this group only four (7%) patients had a Gleason grade of > 7 and eight (14%) had G3 tumours. Thirty (34%) patients had a PSA level of > 20 ng/mL; in this group only two (7%) patients had a Gleason grade of > 7 and 26 (87%) had G1 and G2 tumours. These results confirm our previous observations that the PSA level cannot be use as the only factor to indicate RP in patients with prostate cancer, but further evaluation on more patients is needed.