Background
: Recent improvement of economic life-style and increase in mean lifespan make the incidence of prostatic cancer increase in Korea. Tests that can diagnose prostatic cancer accurately and rapidly are need. Prostatic acid phosphatase which has been used over decades is not specific for prostatic tissue, but ross-reacts with other tissues. So it was helpful for diagnosing metastatic prostatic cancer, but found to be not a useful indicator in diagnosing and follow-up of prostatic cancer because of its low sensitivity and high false negative rate. Recently reported tumor-maker for prostatic cancer, serum gammaseminoprotein is reported to be highly sensitive and the authors evaluated the diagnostic usefulness of test in prostatic cancer.

Methods : The patients who visited a university hospital from Aptil 1993 to October 1994 consists of 15 cases of untreated prostatic cancer, 44cases of benign prostatic hypertrophy(BPH) and 27 cases of benign urologic diseases. The author analyzed the values of √-Seminoprotein(√-Sm) and prostatic specific antigen(PSA).

Results : The level of √-Sm and PSA showed significant increase in patiens with prostatic cancer as compared with those of BPH and benign urologic diseases. The best estimate of cutoff value in √-Sm and PSA test were 3.0ng/ml and 7.0㎍/L respectively. Detecion sensiivity, detecion specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic efficiency of √-Sm test were 86.7%, 88.7%, 61.9%, 96.9% and 88.4%, respectively. The result of coefficient of correlation between √-Sm and PSA was 0.641 and meaningful. A significant correlation was found between √-Sm and PSA. The result of consistent coefficient between √-Sm and PSA was 0.83. Either of the two tests was positive in all cases of prostatic cancer group.

Conclusion : On the basis of these results, it can be suggested that serum √-Sm and PSA test were useful parameters for the screening of early prostatic cancer and that addition of physical examination such as digital recal examination or transrectal ultrasonography to the assessment of tumor marker is more superior for screening of latent prostatic cancer.