Correlation between bone scans and serum levels of osteocalcin, prostate‐specific antigen, and prostatic acid phosphatase in monitoring patients with disseminated cancer of the prostate

Abstract

Response of prostatic cancer bone metastases to therapy (androgen withdrawal and Estracyt) was studied in 43 patients by applying scintiscanning and radioimmunodetective measurement of serum osteocalcin (OC) values. The prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) concentrations, as sensitive probes for the overall tumor spread, were used in parallel in a monitoring procedure. A significant rise in OC levels to values elevated from a pretreatment normal level has been found in patients with a partial osseous tumor remission, and this may be easily distinguished from normal and/or subnormal OC level in bony tumor progression (P less than 0.01) and during stabilization in metastatic spread (P less than 0.01). On these bases, differences between disease progression and the "no change" response category could not be statistically recognized (P greater than 0.05). A sharp increase in circulating OC level has been recorded 1 months after the beginning of the treatment leading to bone remodeling processes and precedes improvements in scintiscan appearance. Blood OC concentration seems also to be of utility 1) in distinguishing scintigraphic flare phenomenon from a slight bone scan progression and 2) when related to scans with regions of both disease improvement and worsening. Furthermore, serum OC concentration can frequently be measured through a noninvasive procedure, thus serving as a significant addition to bone scintigraphy.

Investigation on serum neurone‐specific enolase in prostate cancer diagnosis and monitoring: Comparative study of a multiple tumor marker assay

“…The normal range for PSA declared by the RIA protocol was 0-2.5 ng/ml. This range has been already changed in several studies [24,25] to the more appropriate limits (0-10 ng/ml).…”

Osteocalcin: Is it a useful marker of bone metastasis and response to treatment in advanced prostate cancer?

“…They indicated that osteoblast activity rapidly increases after the initiation of successful therapy for lytic bone metastases, suggesting that bone remodeling occurs. Tarle et al monitored advanced prostate cancer using OC and PSA measurements [12]. They found a significant rise in OC levels from a pretreatment normal levels in patients with a partial osseous tumor remission.…”

“…There are several factors that may be affecting the result. Skeletal metastases have heterogeneous cell population that seem to differ in their androgen dependency [12]. Changes in OC levels may be related to this heterogeneity in bony lesions.…”

NK cell activity in treated prostate cancer patients as a probe for circulating tumor cells: Hormone regulatory effects in vivo

“…Tumor differentiation and stage, especially the distinction between local and dissem-inated disease, were firmly established for all subjects on the basis of routine clinical findings. The course of the disease was followed as described in previous reports [17,20,21]. Six patients were treated with DES, 11 with Estracyt, and nine with cyproterone acetate (CPA); alternatively, seven patients were subjected to orchiectomy, 12 to orchiectomy + CPA, and six to orchiectomy + flutamide.…”

“…The normal ranges of the above parameters, as detected by these protocols, were 0-2.5 n g / d (PSA), 0-2 ng/ml (PAP), 3-14 ng/ml (testosterone), 20-100 p g / d (estradiol), 6-25 pg/100 ml (cortisol), and 125-600 mIU/L (prolactin). The more appropriate normal range for the Yang polyclonal PSA assay was found to be 0-10 ng/ml [20].…”