ABSTRACT
Leukocyte adherence inhibition (LAI), a suggested in vitro correlate of cell-mediated immunity, was employed to identify patients with various stages of adenocarcinoma of the prostate on the basis of their degree of reactivity to prostatic tumor-associated antigens. Eighty-one percent of the patients and 56% of the controls were identified correctly. The efficiency of LAI was based on the sensitivity and specificity of the test. Our data revealed the absence of any correlation between patients' clinical stage of the disease and their in vitro reactivity to prostatic tumor-associated antigens.
Subject(s)
Prostatic Neoplasms/diagnosis , Aged , Antigens, Neoplasm/immunology , Humans , Immunity, Cellular , Leukocyte Adherence Inhibition Test , Male , Middle Aged , Prostatic Neoplasms/immunologyABSTRACT
The data accumulated during screening of these 300 men suggest that the digital rectal examination is the most efficient test for the diagnosis of prostate cancer. This test is universally available, because physicians believe that it should routinely be performed as part of the physical examination of every man, particularly for men over the age of 40. The digital rectal examination provides useful clinical information about the rectum, anal sphincter, and the quality of stool. Its diagnostic accuracy is unexcelled by more recent, complex, and expensive tests. Finally, in this age of escalating medical costs and physician accountability for these costs, you can't beat the price of the digital rectal examination.
