BACKGROUND.
Serum TPS (tissue polypeptide-specific antigen) has been observed to be characteristic of carcinoma proliferation, and increased levels of TPS seem to be closely related to tumor progression. In this study we wanted to evaluate the importance of the tumormarker TPS in the diagnosis and follow-up of patients with prostatic carcinoma, and to compare it with prostate-specific antigen (PSA). METHODS. We considered 39 patients with clinically confined disease, who underwent neoadjuvant hormonal therapy and thereafter radical prostatectomy, and 45 patients who did not undergo surgery and underwent hormonal adjuvant therapy alone. PSA and TPS were measured at the time of diagnosis and at regular intervals in the follow-up; TPS was measured in a control group of patients as well. RESULTS. We were able to observe that, in untreated patients, PSA correlates with clinical stage, increasing with increasing tumor stage; a similar correlation was not observed when considering TPS. After androgen ablation we observed a decrease in PSA, but the serum values of TPS remained higher, suggesting that activity still exists inside the tumor. The evaluation of TPS appeared to be of particular interest in the follow-up after radical prostatectomy, especially in patients undergoing hormonal therapy; in fact, we were able to observe that relapse of the disease can be suspected early by the increase of TPS in hormonally treated patients. CONCLUSIONS. We assert that TPS can add useful information on the state of neoplastic illness, especially in patients following adjuvant androgen-suppressive hormonal therapy, after radical prostatectomy; serial measurements of this marker could be useful in the early diagnosis of a relapse.