Date of Award
Fall 12-2012
Degree Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Medical Laboratory Science
First Advisor
Margot Hall
Advisor Department
Medical Laboratory Science
Abstract
Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer in men. The American Cancer Society has estimated that there were 240,890 newly diagnosed cases in 2011 and 33,720 deaths from prostate cancer. Diagnosis of this disease has traditionally been done by measuring prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels through sero-chemical testing. The purpose of this study is to compare serum testosterone levels to PSA levels and Prostatic Acid Phosphatase (PAP) levels in the search for new and more accurate technology. This study shows that testosterone was not efficient in correctly diagnosing those with prostate cancer. It had a sensitivity of 0% compared to PSA at 30.12% and PAP at 20.73%. However, the percentage of true negative results in those without prostate cancer was significantly higher in testosterone than PSA or PAP testing. It had a specificity of 96.80% versus PSA at 91.29% and PAP at 80.38%. Possible explanations for 0% true positives may be due to skewed results from patients already receiving treatment. The reference values for this test may also require revision. The manufacturer’s suggested reference ranges were used in this study and may not properly represent the patient demographic.
Copyright
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Recommended Citation
Chu, Annie, "A Comparison of Testosterone With Prostate Specific Antigen and Prostatic Acid Phosphatase For the Serodiagnosis of Prostate Cancer In Adult Males" (2012). Honors Theses. 95.
https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/95