ABSTRACT
This study was done aiming to evaluate the validity of IGF-1, IGFBP-3 and thereof ratios with prostate specific antigen [PSA] in diagnosis of prostate cancer. The study included 60 prostate cancer patients, 44 benign prostatic hyperplasia [BPH] patients and 40 normal male subjects. Serum levels of IGF-1, IGFBP-3, PSA and fPSA were quantified. The possible associations between parameters were assessed. The validity [sensitivity and specificity] were evaluated by ROC curve analysis. The areas under curve [AUC] were 0.88, 0.81, 0.57, 0.59 and 0.62 for PSA, free/total PSA, IGF-1, IGFBP-3 and IGF-1/IGFBP-3 respectively. IGFBP-3/PSA ratio offered a high validity with an AUC of 0.87, whereas IGF-1 /PSA ratio offered the best sensitivity to specificity ratio [0.89]. IGF-1 had no significant differences between studied groups while, IGF-1/PSA ratio was found to differentiate significantly among metastatic, localized prostate cancer and control groups. A significance difference was noted for IGFBP-3/PSA ratio between prostate cancer and control groups. From our study it can be concluded that serum IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 may have no ability merely by themselves to discriminate prostate cancer, but their combinations with PSA proved to be valid tool for the significant discrimination of prostate cancer as well as reflecting the progression of the disease