Infectious Mononucleosis, Other Infections, and Prostate-Specific Antigen Concentration as a Marker of Prostate Involvement During Infection

Although Epstein-Barr virus has been detected in prostate tissue, no associations have been observed with prostate cancer in the few studies conducted to date. One possible reason for these null findings may be use of cumulative exposure measures that do not inform the timing of infection, i.

e. , childhood versus adolescence/early-adulthood when infection is more likely to manifest as infectious mononucleosis (IM). We sought to determine the influence of young adult-onset IM on the prostate by measuring prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as a marker of prostate inflammation/damage among U. S. military members. We defined IM cases as men diagnosed with IM from 1998-2003 (n=55) and controls as men without an IM diagnosis (n=255). We selected two archived serum specimens for each participant, the first collected after diagnosis for cases and one randomly-selected from 1998-2003 for controls ("index"), as well as the preceding specimen ("pre-index"). PSA was measured in each specimen. To explore the specificity of our findings for prostate as opposed to systemic inflammation, we performed a post-hoc comparison of other infectious disease cases without genitourinary involvement (n=90) and controls (n=220). We found that IM cases were more likely to have a large PSA rise than controls (≥20 ng/mL: 19. 7% versus 8. 8%, p=0. 027; ≥40% rise: 25. 7% versus 9. 4%, p=0. 0021), as were other infectious disease cases (25. 7% versus 14. 0%, p=0. 020; 27. 7% versus 18. 0%, p=0. 092). These findings suggest that, in addition to rising because of prostate infection, PSA may also rise because of systemic inflammation, which could have implications for PSA interpretation in older men. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

International journal of cancer. Journal international du cancer. 2015 Dec 17 [Epub ahead of print]

Siobhan Sutcliffe, Remington L Nevin, Ratna Pakpahan, Debra J Elliott, Marvin E Langston, Angelo M De Marzo, Charlotte A Gaydos, William B Isaacs, William G Nelson, Lori J Sokoll, Patrick C Walsh, Jonathan M Zenilman, Steven B Cersovsky, Elizabeth A Platz

Division of Public Health Sciences, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO. , Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD. , Division of Public Health Sciences, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO. , Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. , Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. , Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. , Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. , Department of Urology and the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. , Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. , Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. , Department of Urology and the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. , Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. , U. S. Army Public Health Command (Provisional), Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. , Department of Urology and the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.

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