Comparison of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA), soluble E-cadherin (sE-cad), and inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase-2 (IMPDH-2) as aggressive prostate cancer predictors

This study aimed to compare serum prostate specific antigen (PSA), Soluble E-cadherin (sE-cad), and Inosine Monophosphate Dehydrogenase-2 in predicting prostate cancer aggressiveness by determining their correlations with Gleason score and International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) Grade Groups. This was a hospital-based descriptive quantitative cross-sectional study whereby we enrolled 48 newly diagnosed prostate adenocarcinoma patients in the study. Their serum was analysed for PSA, sE-cad, and IMPDH-2. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to test the correlation between the serum sE-cad and Gleason score while Spearman rho correlation coefficient was used for PSA and IMPDH-2. The correlation coefficient (r) was graded as very weak (< 0.3), weak (0.3–0.4), moderate (0.5–0.6), or strong (≥ 0.7), while the magnitude was determined by calculating the coefficient of determination for the respective analysis (R2). The correlation between the biomarkers and the ISUP Grade groups was determined using the Kendall tau correlation coefficient (τ). All levels of statistical significance were set at p < 0.05. The mean age of the subjects was 69.4 years. The Means of serum PSA, sE-cad, and IMPDH-2 were 47.2 ng/ml, 136.5 ng/ml, and 89.8 pg/ml respectively. Serum PSA weakly correlated with both Gleason score (r = 0.3, p = 0.04) and ISUP grade groups (τ = 0.3, p = 0.02). The magnitude was 0.097. Similarly, serum sE-cad correlated weakly with both Gleason scores (r = 0.4, p = 0.01), and ISUP Grade Groups (τ = 0.3, p = 0.005). The magnitude was 0.134. However, serum IMPDH-2 neither correlated with Gleason score (r = 0.03, p = 0.86) nor ISUP Grade Groups (τ = 0.004, p = 0.97). Serum sE-cad did not outperform both IMPDH-2 (p = 0.91) or PSA (p = 0.23) in predicting the Gleason score. Serum sE-cad best predicted aggressive prostate cancer but did not statistically outperform serum PSA or IMPDH-2. Hence, neither of the three are reliable predictors of aggressive prostate cancer.