Original Article Can Prostate Specific Antigen Be Used as New Biomarker for Early Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

Introduction: As a glycoprotein, Plasma Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) is mainly produced by prostate epithelial cells and is used as a major diagnostic tool for prostate cancer. A group of researchers relate the elevated number of estrogen receptors in breast cancer samples to the over-production of PSA in this type of cancer. The study aimed to determine the plasma PSA level of the participants of the study as a new biomarker for the primary diagnosis of breast cancer. Materials & Methods: Employing a historical cohort design, the study was conducted on 95 patients with breast masses. The participants were assigned to malignant (n=43) and benign (n=40) groups. Male participants and those undergoing a recent hormone therapy were excluded from the study. Independent-samples t-test and Fishers exact test were used to analyze the data using SPSS (Version 20). Resuls: Findings of the study indicated the sensitivity and specificity of the plasma PSA level in patients with breast cancer was 63.15% and 53.48 %, respectively. Also, it was found that the average plasma PSA levels for the benign and malignant groups were 0.047 ± 0.024 and 0.065 ± 0.054, respectively. There was no statistically significant relationship between the two groups. Moreover, no significant difference was observed )P>0.05( between the two groups when background factors were taken into consideration. Conclusion: Plasma PSA level is not a reliable biomarker to diagnose breast cancer although more comprehensive research evidence is required to consider other features of malignant samples and tumor sizes so as to evaluate the role of PSA in differentiating breast neoplastic lesions in a more meticulous way.