INCREASED ANALYTICAL SENSITIVITY OF RT-PCR OF PSA MESSENGER-RNA DECREASES DIAGNOSTIC SPECIFICITY OF DETECTION OF PROSTATIC CELLS IN BLOOD

The diagnostic specificity of the detection of disseminated prostatic cells by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of P SA mRNA was investigated, A sensitive nested PCR was developed. In blo od samples from 10 healthy female and 10 healthy male persons examined by RT-PCR, mRNA of PSA was detected 3 times in each group. In the gro ups of patients suffering from benign prostate hyperplasia and prostat e cancer, 6 of I I and 5 of 12, respectively, gave positive RT-PCR res ults, With increasing analytical sensitivity of the RT-PCR of PSA mRNA , the diagnostic specificity of the assay is decreased, Further develo pment of this diagnostic method requires the introduction of the quant itative PCR which may make possible discrimination between prostatic a nd non-prostatic source of PSA mRNA by quantification. (C) 1997 Wiley- Liss, Inc.