Relationship between prostate specific antigen density, microvessel density and prostatic volume in benign prostatic hyperplasia and advanced prostatic carcinoma.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between prostate specific antigen density and prostate volume with microvessel density in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia and advanced prostatic carcinoma. Sixty-eight patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia and 11 patients with advanced prostatic carcinoma participated in the study. The paraffin blocks of all patients were stained with CD34 by the standard immunohistochemical technique and microvessel density, prostate specific antigen density and prostatic volume were determined. In patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia the mean microvessel density, mean prostate specific antigen density and mean prostatic volume were 74+/-89+/-22.73, 0.12+/-0.10 and 59.97+/-27.0 ml, respectively. There was no correlation between prostate specific antigen density and mean prostatic volume or microvessel density (r = 0.079 and -0.095, respectively). In patients with advanced prostatic carcinoma the mean microvessel density, mean prostate specific antigen density and mean prostatic volume were 147.90+/-47.55, 0.63+/-0.41 and 54.00+/-22.42 ml, respectively. In this group, while there was a good correlation between prostate specific antigen density and microvessel density (r = 0.785), no significant correlation was found between prostatic volume and microvessel density (r = -0.07). There was significant statistical difference in patients with advanced prostatic carcinoma compared to patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia in terms of mean microvessel density (p<0.0001). The findings that there was no correlation between prostatic volume and MVD either in benign prostatic hyperplasia or in prostatic carcinoma suggest that microvessel development is not correlated with prostatic volume but may be correlated with morphology.