Prostate-specific antigen: a cancer fighter and a valuable messenger?

BACKGROUND: Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a valuable prostatic cancer biomarker that is now widely used for population screening, diagnosis, and monitoring of patients with prostate cancer. Despite the voluminous literature on this biomarker, relatively few reports have addressed the issue of its physiological function and its connection to the pathogenesis and progression of prostate and other cancers. APPROACH: I here review literature dealing with PSA physiology and pathobiology and discuss reports that either suggest that PSA is a beneficial molecule with tumor suppressor activity or that PSA has deleterious effects in prostate, breast, and possibly other cancers. CONTENT: The present scientific literature on PSA physiology and pathobiology is confusing. A group of reports have suggested that PSA may act as a tumor suppressor, a negative regulator of cell growth, and an apoptotic molecule, whereas others suggest that PSA may, through its chymotrypsin-like activity, promote tumor progression and metastasis.
SUMMARY: The physiological function of PSA is still not well understood. Because PSA is just one member of the human kallikrein gene family, it is possible that its biological functions are related to the activity of other related kallikreins. Only when the physiological functions of PSA and other kallikreins are elucidated will we be able to explain the currently apparently conflicting experimental data.