PROSTATE-SPECIFIC ANTIGEN AND PROSTATIC ACID-PHOSPHATASE IMMUNOREACTIVITY AS PROGNOSTIC INDICATORS OF ADVANCED PROSTATIC-CARCINOMA

To determine whether the prostate specific antigen (PSA) and prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) immunoreactivities in prostatic carcinoma are reliable prognostic factors, the PSA and PAP immunohistochemical distr ibution was examined in needle biopsy specimens of 80 patients with ad vanced prostatic carcinoma. Our results indicated a higher cancer-spec ific survival rate in patients with a greater PSA or PAP immunostainin g. Furthermore, a multivariate analysis of possible prognostic factors , that is patient age, clinical stage, Gleason score, serum PAP, PSA a nd PAP immunostaining scores, and the initial treatment, has confirmed that the difference in PAP immunoreactivity is the most important pro gnostic factor (p < 0.01) for advanced prostatic carcinoma, with the G leason score (p = 0.06), clinical stage (p = 0.09) and PSA immunoreact ivity (p = 0.48) being the second, third and fifth prognostic factors, respectively.