Abstract
Using a highly sensitive immunofluorometric procedure, we measured the total prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentration in 632 sera obtained from female blood donors and women with idiopathic hirsutism, breast cancer or benign breast diseases. A total of 50 sera with total PSA > 15 ng l(-1) were fractionated by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in order to resolve the two immunoreactive molecular forms, i.e. free PSA (approximately 30 kDa) and PSA bound to alpha1-antichymotrypsin (PSA-ACT, 100 kDa). We found that breast cancer patients have presurgical serum total PSA levels similar to those of blood donors. Total serum PSA concentration decreases with age in women with idiopathic hirsutism, in cancer patients and in patients with benign breast diseases. The major molecular form of PSA in the serum of all normal and hirsute women (n = 15) is PSA bound to the proteinase inhibitor alpha1-antichymotrypsin. The major molecular form in 44% of presurgical cancer patient sera is free PSA. A total of 58% of benign breast disease patients also have in their serum mainly free PSA. We conclude that about half the patients with breast cancer or benign breast diseases have free PSA as the major molecular form in their serum, whereas patients without breast pathologies (normal blood donors, idiopathic hirsutism) have PSA bound to alpha1-antichymotrypsin as the major molecular form. The ratio of PSA/PSA-ACT may have value as a simple biochemical test for diagnosis of breast pathologies including breast cancer.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 24 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $10.79 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Borchert, G., Melegos, D., Tomlinson, G. et al. Molecular forms of prostate-specific antigen in the serum of women with benign and malignant breast diseases. Br J Cancer 76, 1087–1094 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1997.512
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1997.512
This article is cited by
-
Reconnoitring the Status of Prostate Specific Antigen and its Role in Women
Indian Journal of Clinical Biochemistry (2015)
-
Measurement of prostate-specific antigen level as a biomarker for breast cancer by using mass signal amplification
BioChip Journal (2015)
-
Measurement of serum total and free prostate-specific antigen in women with colorectal carcinoma
British Journal of Cancer (2002)
-
Measurement of prostate-specific antigen in detection of benign or malignant breast disease in women
British Journal of Cancer (1999)