Prostate-specific antigen levels in young white and black men 20 to 45 years old

Objectives. To determine the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels and PSA change over time in young white and black men 20 to 45 years old. Methods. The Department of Defense Serum Repository, a serum bank that stor es all residual serum from the military human immunodeficiency virus screen ing program at -25 degreesC, was sampled to obtain a total of 588 black and 588 white subjects 20 to 45 years old. This was a retrospective study with only demographic data available on the studied subjects. The samples used for this study were collected between June 24, 1988 and June 12, 1996. Indi viduals with a history of prostate disease were excluded by query of a cent ralized Department of Defense diagnosis database. Three serum specimens eve nly distributed over a mean of 6 years were selected for each individual to determine the free and total PSA levels and PSA velocity. The Hybritech Ta ndem-E PSA assay was used for the total PSA measurement, and the Hybritech Tandem-R assay was used for the free PSA measurement. Results. The baseline serum PSA levels differed by race (P = 0.04). The med ian (25th, 75th percentile) baseline serum PSA levels for black men 20 to 2 9, 30 to 39, and 40 to 45 were 0.38 ng/mL (0.26, 0.61), 0.45 ng/mL (0.32, 0 .67), and 0.52 ng/mL (0.37, 0.73), respectively. The median baseline serum PSA levels for the same decade groups in white men were 0.38 ng/mL (0.27, 0 .57), 0.45 ng/mL (0.28, 0.68), and 0.40 ng/mL (0.26, 0.64), respectively. T he PSA velocity was higher in white men than in black men (mean 2.8%/yr and 1.6%/yr, respectively, P = 0.032). Conclusions. These results suggest that although black men 20 to 45 years o ld have higher baseline serum PSA levels than white men of the same age, th e PSA velocity is greater in young white than in young black men. Additiona l work is needed to determine the clinical significance of these findings. UROLOGY 56: 812-816, 2000. Published by Elsevier Science Inc.