The influence of age and prostate volume on the cancer detection rate in Korean men with PSA levels of 4.0 to 10.0ng/ml: A multicenter, retrospective study

Purpose: We retrospectively investigated how patients age and prostate volume influence on the cancer detection rate in Korean men with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels of 4.0 to 10.0ng/ml. Materials and methods: 791 Korean men who underwent transrectal ultrasound guided prostate biopsies (TRBx) at 12 medical centers were analyzed retrospectively during the previous 10 years. TRBx were performed in cases with PSA levels of 4.0 to 10.0ng/ml. The biopsy-proven cancer patient group was compared to the non-cancer patient group according to age, PSA, prostate volume and PSAD. Results: Among the 791 patients who underwent TRBx, prostate cancer was detected in 123 patients (15.5%). The mean age (cancer group vs non-cancer group=69.1 vs 63.8 year-old), prostate volume (38.0 vs 42.5ml, respectively) and PSAD (0.21 vs 0.18ng/ml/ml, respectively) were found in statistically significant between the two groups. The cancer detection rate (20.1%) in the small prostate (less than 40ml) was significantly higher than that (10.3%) of the large prostate. The cancer detection rate was significantly increased with age: from 14.4% for the 50 to 59 year-old patients to 31.6% for the 80 or more year-old patients. Conclusions: The cancer detection rate in Korean men with a gray zone PSA level is lower than that of Caucasians. However, regarding the detection of prostate cancer in Korean men, the older age group and the patients with less than 40ml of prostate volume among the patients with gray zone PSA levels are considered as the important factors to decide whether biopsy of prostate is needed.