Editorial comment to “The value of percentage free prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the detection of prostate cancer among patients with intermediate levels of total PSA (4.0–10.0ng/mL) in Nigeria” and Reply by authors

摘要

The authors evaluated the value of the percentage free PSA (% fPSA) in 105 Nigerian patients with a palpably benign prostate gland and intermediate total PSA levels (4.0–10 ng/mL) for detecting prostate cancer. The prostate biopsy was taken using a digitally directed six-core technique and correlated with the % fPSA level. Prostate cancer was detected in 14 patients (13%) and all of them had a % fPSA of <40%. However, six of the patients with a % fPSA level of <40% had no cancer. The authors concluded that the best threshold for % fPSA in the studied population was <40%, with a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 93.4% and a positive predictive value of 70%.