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Do preoperative serum C-reactive protein levels predict the definitive pathological stage in patients with clinically localized prostate cancer?

International Urology and Nephrology volume 47, pages 765–770 (2015)Cite this article

Abstract

Purpose

The serum C-reactive protein (CRP) level correlates with the clinical prognosis in patients with kidney, penile and metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (PC). We prospectively evaluated the preoperative CRP level as a predictive marker for an advanced tumor stage or high-grade cancer in patients with clinically localized PC.

Methods

The study evaluated 629 patients with clinically localized PC who underwent radical prostatectomy between 2010 and 2013. Exclusion criteria were signs of systemic infection, symptoms of an autoimmune disease or neoadjuvant androgen deprivation.

Results

Poorly differentiated PC tends to be more common in patients with elevated CRP levels (15.5 vs. 9.5 %, p = 0.08). Analogously, patients with a Gleason score ≥8 PC had significantly higher median CRP levels than those with a Gleason score ≤7 PC (1.9 vs. 1.2 mg/l, p = 0.03). However, neither uni- nor multivariate analysis showed an association between the preoperative CRP level and the presence of a locally advanced tumor stage, lymph node metastases or a positive surgical margin. CRP also failed to correlate with the initial PSA level and the clinical tumor-associated findings. Moreover, multivariate analysis relativized the association between an elevated CRP level and poor tumor differentiation.

Conclusion

In patients with clinically localized PC, CRP does not appear to possess the predictive value and it was shown to have patients with other tumor entities or advanced PC.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Ethical standard

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, Ulm University Medical Center, Prittwitzstrasse 43, 89075, Ulm, Germany

    Thomas J. Schnoeller, Julie Steinestel, Florian Jentzmik & Andres J. Schrader

  2. Department of Urology, Muenster University Medical Center, Münster, Germany

    Julie Steinestel & Andres J. Schrader

  3. Department of Pathology, Muenster University Medical Center, Münster, Germany

    Konrad Steinestel

Authors
  1. Thomas J. Schnoeller
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  2. Julie Steinestel
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  4. Florian Jentzmik
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  5. Andres J. Schrader
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Correspondence to Thomas J. Schnoeller.

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Schnoeller, T.J., Steinestel, J., Steinestel, K. et al. Do preoperative serum C-reactive protein levels predict the definitive pathological stage in patients with clinically localized prostate cancer?. Int Urol Nephrol 47, 765–770 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11255-015-0952-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11255-015-0952-x

Keywords

  • Prostate cancer
  • Localized
  • Biomarker
  • C-reactive protein
  • Prognosis
  • Survival