Serum prostate‐specific antigen in a community‐based population of healthy Japanese men: lower values than for similarly aged white men

Abstract

Objective To determine whether the age-specific reference ranges for serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentration generated for white men are applicable to other races. Patients and methods Three-hundred and thirty-five healthy lapanese men, aged 40–79 years, residing in the small fishing village of Shimamaki-mura, Japan, agreed to enter this prospective, community-based study. All underwent a detailed clinical evaluation that included a serum PSA determination, a digital rectal examination and a transrectal ultrasound. Two-hundred and eighty-six (85%) completed the prostatic evaluation and had no evidence of prostate cancer by any one of the three diagnostic tests; these men formed the study population on which all analyses were performed. Results The serum PSA concentration correlated directly with patient age (r = 0.33; Pr=0.57; Pr= 0.30; PPP<0.001). Conclusions These findings confirm the earlier observations that serum PSA, prostatic volume and PSAD are age-dependent. However, because of physiological differences among the two races, partly due to the size of the prostate gland, the age-specific reference ranges for serum PSA are lower for Japanese men than for white men. Because of these racial differences, it is now crucial to conduct a similar investigation among black men.