Is Prostate-Specific Antigen Still the Best Thmor Marker for Prostate Cancer?

SUNAI LEEWANSANGTONG, M.D.*, SUCHAI SOONTRAPA, M.D.*, ANUPAN TANTIWONG, M.D.*

Affiliation : *Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University. Bangkok 10700, Thailand.

AbstractPSA has been utilized for more than a decade. Since the overwhelming benefit of PSA, the previous markers for prostate cancer have been abandoned. Even though PSA is no more an organ specific agent, its function as an organ specific marker remains in all clinical situations. PSA is sig- nificantly involved not only in screening for early detection but also in all clinical spectrums of prostate cancer. Never before has the tumor marker played such a significant role in all purposes of clinical utilization for prostate cancer as PSA has. The answer to the title of this article is absolutely positive. Nevertheless, the following question of whether PSA has an impact in decreas- ing the mortality rate of patients with prostate cancer is yet to be answered. In Siriraj Hospital, though PSA has been available since 1991, the majority of patients registered with the advanced stage of disease and their treatment outcomes are not always satisfactory. Since the prognoses of the patients with an early stage of disease appear very good, to improve the mortality of Thai patients with prostate cancer, screening using PSA for early detection should he introduced and widely used.

Keywords : Prostate-Specific Antigen, Prostate Neoplasm, Prostate

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