pPSA improves prostate cancer detection - Lab Tests - Brief Article

Medical Laboratory Observer, April, 2003

> Proenzyme prostate specific antigen (pPSA) does a better job of detecting prostate cancer and helping prevent unnecessary biopsies than free PSA (fPSA) does, according to the results of a preliminary study reported in the February issue of Urology. Lori J. Sokoll, PhD, and colleagues at Johns Hopkins Medical Institution in Baltimore, report that in the 2.5 ng/mL to 4.0 ng/mL total PSA range, potentially 75 percent of cancers can be detected, with 59 percent of unnecessary biopsies being spared, using percentage of pPSA, as compared to only 33 percent of biopsies being spared using percentage of fPSA.