Elevated prostate specific antigen and reduced 10-year survival among a cohort of Danish men consecutively referred from primary care to an urological department during 2005-2006

It remains unclear whether total prostate specific antigen (tPSA) or complex PSA (cPSA) has the best diagnostic performance. Additionally, the utility of percentage free PSA (%fPSA) is still debated. Our objectives were to compare the diagnostic performances of tPSA, cPSA, and %fPSA among patients referred from GP to an Urological Specialist and to investigate prognostic factors and survival in the cohort. A total of 1261 consecutive male patients without previously known prostate cancer (PCa) were referred to the same Department of Urology during June 2005 to August 2006. Some 299 patients were diagnosed with PCa and 962 patients were found without PCa. Among the PCa patients, the median age, tPSA, cPSA, and %fPSA levels were 70.8 years, 13.4 μg/L, 10.8 μg/L, and 12.6%. For patients without PCa the results were 67.5 years, 2.5 μg/L, 1.9 μg/L, and 24.9%. The sensitivity, specificity, PVpos, PVneg, and efficiency of tPSA and cPSA were overlapping (p > .05). In the tPSA interval >4 μg/L - ≤20 μg/L, %fPSA excluded PCa with a PVneg of 72.4%; 38.5% of PCa patients had a tPSA concentration >20 μg/L at the time of referral and these patients had a reduced 10-year survival as compared to patients with tPSA concentrations ≤20 μg/L. In conclusion, tPSA and cPSA showed similar diagnostic performances. %fPSA provided additional diagnostic information at tPSA concentrations >4 μg - ≤20 μg/L. The high percentage of patients with tPSA concentrations >20 μg/L indicate delayed use of tPSA resulting in advanced disease at presentation and reduced patient survival.