Estimated Prostate Cancer Prevalence in Korean Men with Serum Prostate-specific Antigen 2.5-9.9ng/ml

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to estimate the number of prevalent cases of biopsy detectable prostate cancer in Korean men with prostate-specific antigen(PSA) 2.5-9.9ng/ml.

Materials and Methods :We analyzed 2,422 Korean men who had undergone prostate biopsy at 11 medical centers from 1993 to 2002. A total of 45,074 men(aged 50 to 79 years) carried out serum PSA level test at routine physical check-ups, between 1999 and 2005, at 12 domestic hospitals. We combined these results with published data from Korean population census in 2005, and calculated the prostate cancer prevalence in Korean men with PSA 2.5-9.9ng/ml.

Results: There are estimated 94,900(1.9%) and 34,500(0.7%) prevalent cases of biopsy detectable prostate cancer in men aged 50-79 years with a serum PSA 2.5-9.9ng/ml and 4.0-9.9ng/ml, respectively.

Conclusions :A large number of prevalent cases of biopsy detectable prostate cancer exist in Korean men with PSA 2.5-9.9ng/ml. This information is useful for patient counseling and provides strategy for PSA screening.