Scrutiny of Prostate Cancer Antigen 3 Effectiveness as an Assist of Prostatic Specific Antigen in Screening and Early Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer: A Review

Abstract

PSA is the most routine marker to detect prostate cancer, but due to its low specificity that can lead to a number of unnecessary biopsies, there is great need for an alternate method. Can PCA3 be one of these methods? PCA3 is overexpressed in prostate cancer, not in benign conditions such as prostatitis (unlike PSA). Because of its efficacy (being more sensitive and specific in comparison with PSA), this biomarker could be a very useful and promising method for the early detection of prostate cancer, especially in combination with other tests such as TMPRSS2-ERG gene fusion.