We performed this study to investigate the diagnostic performance of prostate-specific antigen density (PSAD) in a multicenter cohort of the Chinese Prostate Cancer Consortium. Outpatients with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels ≥4.0 ng ml−1 regardless of digital rectal examination (DRE) results or PSA levels <4.0 ng ml−1 and abnormal DRE results were included from 18 large referral hospitals in China. The diagnostic performance of PSAD and the sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa) and high-grade prostate cancer (HGPCa) at different cutoff values were evaluated. A total of 5220 patients were included in the study, and 2014 (38.6%) of them were diagnosed with PCa. In patients with PSA levels ranging from 4.0 to 10.0 ng ml−1, PSAD was associated with PCa and HGPCa in both univariate (odds ratio [OR] = 45.15, P < 0.0001 and OR = 25.38, P < 0.0001, respectively) and multivariate analyses (OR = 52.55, P < 0.0001 and OR = 26.05, P < 0.0001, respectively). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of PSAD in predicting PCa and HGPCa were 0.627 and 0.630, respectively. With the PSAD cutoff of 0.10 ng ml−2, we obtained a sensitivity of 88.7% for PCa, and nearly all (89.9%) HGPCa cases could be detected and biopsies could be avoided in 20.2% of the patients (359/1776 cases). Among these patients who avoided biopsies, only 30 cases had HGPCa. We recommend 0.10 ng ml−2 as the proper cutoff value of PSAD, which will obtain a sensitivity of nearly 90% for both PCa and HGPCa. The results of this study should be validated in prospective, population-based multicenter studies.

Keywords: Chinese; early detection of cancer; prostate cancer; prostate-specific antigen; prostate-specific antigen density

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