Purpose The severity of prostate cancer (PCa), which determines the disease progression, is theorized to be a function of zinc status. Hence, this study was structured to determine the impact of zinc status on the severity and progression of PCa disease. Materials and Methods This was a descriptive cross-sectional study of 220 histologically-confirmed PCa patients and 220 age-matched controls, conducted prospectively in a Nigerian tertiary hospital. Plasma zinc, prostate-specific antigen, creatinine, fasting glucose, and estimated glomerular filtration rate were determined for both study groups. The International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) grades and the American Joint Committee on Cancer clinical staging were employed as indices for PCa severity (grade) and progression (stage) respectively. Results The PCa patients had markedly reduced plasma zinc status compared to controls (cases: 9.42±3.02 µmol/L versus controls: 15.23±4.47 µmol/L; p<0.001). Low zinc status was more pronounced within the severe grade and advanced PCa disease subgroups (p<0.001). Inverse relationships existed between zinc status and ISUP grades among the entire PCa patient (p<0.001) and the categorized PCa grade and stage subgroups (p<0.001). Low zinc status had significant impact of predicting severe (crude=odds ratio [OR], 8.714; p<0.001; age-adjusted=OR, 11.152; p<0.001) and advanced (crude=OR, 17.160; p<0.001; age-adjusted=OR, 18.927; p<0.001) PCa disease. Conclusions This study suggests that low plasma zinc status is associated with severe grade and advanced PCa disease. However, further well-designed studies with large sample sizes are warranted to confirm these associations.

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Background: Total prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels increase with advancing age. Its age-specific ranges are being advocated to increase its sensitivity and specificity. This study was aimed to examine the relationship between total PSA levels and age, and to determine the age-specific ranges among healthy men without prostatic diseases in our environment.Methods: In this retrospective hospital-based study, records of men without prostatic diseases who had visited University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital for routine screening for prostate cancer using serum total PSA between 1st January 2012 and 31st December 2016 were retrieved and analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman’s correlation test. A p-value < 0.05 was considered significant.Results: Records of 476 men aged 38 to 86 years were recruited for the study. The age-specific total PSA reference range using the 95th percentile total PSA concentration values in each 10year groups were 0-1.60, 0-4.93, 0-6.93, 0-7.80, 0-9.65, and 0-13.30 for the age groups 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79 and >80years respectively. There was a positive correlation between serum PSA concentration and age (rs = 0.395; p<0.001).Conclusions: Total PSA increases with advancing age and its age-specific reference range in this study are similar to findings in our environment but higher than the values found in other parts of the world. We suggest serum PSA normal reference values should be characterized by age and race in our environment.

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