Issue Listing    Table of Contents    Article : Adult urology

Volume

56

Issue

5 (November 2000)

Pages

839-842

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Abstract   Full Text   Printable Format (PDF 147 Kb)

Today men with prostate cancer have larger prostates

Mark R. Feneley ^a, Patricia Landis ^a, Inpakala Simon ^a, E. Jeffrey Metter ^b, Christopher H. Morrell ^c, H. Ballentine Carter ^aA and Patrick C. Walsh ^a
[a]James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland, USA^[b]National Institute on Aging, Gerontology Research Center, Baltimore, Maryland, USA^[c]Mathematical Sciences Department, Loyola College, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
^A Reprint requests: H. Ballentine Carter, M.D., James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Marburg 403, 600 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287-2101
Manuscript received 3 March 2000 Revised 12 June 2000 Accepted 12 June 2000;

Abstract

Objectives. To examine the relationship between prostate size and the method of cancer detection in men with organ-confined prostate cancer, and compare prostate size in men with and without cancer.

Methods. Prostate volume was evaluated in 720 men who had undergone radical prostatectomy for Stage T1c or Stage T2 cancer. Men with Stage T2 cancer were divided into those treated before 1989 (when widespread prostate-specific antigen [PSA] testing began), or not. Gland volume was also examined in 265 men participating in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging who had no clinical evidence of cancer. Volumes were compared using linear regression to allow for age.

Results. Prostate volume in men with Stage T1c cancer was statistically significantly larger than in men with Stage T2 cancer diagnosed in the pre-PSA era after adjusting for age (P = 0.0001), and statistically significantly larger than in men without cancer above age 47 years based on 95% confidence intervals. Prostate volumes in men with Stage T2 cancer diagnosed in the pre-PSA era and in men without cancer were not statistically significantly different.

Conclusions. Prostate volume in men with PSA-detected, organ-confined cancer is larger than in men with palpable organ-confined cancer diagnosed in either the pre-PSA era or PSA era. These discrepancies may reflect a diagnostic bias due to the effect of benign prostatic hyperplasia on serum PSA that results in the selection of men with larger prostates for biopsy.

			Issue Listing    Table of Contents    Article : Adult urology