Background: Globally prostate cancer is the sixth leading cause of cancer-related
death in men. Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) is present in small amount in the
serum of men with healthy prostates, but is often elevated in the presence of
prostate cancer and other prostate-related disorders. The aim of this present study
was to determine the PSA levels among healthy men of African descent resident in
Sokoto, North Western Nigeria.
Methods: Testing was carried out using the CTK Biotech PSA kit (CTK Biotech Inc,
San Diego, USA). The Onsite PSA Rapid Test is a lateral flow chromatographic
immunoassay for the qualitative detection of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in
human serum or plasma at a cut-off level of 4.0 ng/mL.
Result: We investigated the PSA levels in 106 consecutively recruited men of
African descent with age range and mean age of 40-70 years and 44.75 ± 7.91 years
respectively. We observed a PSA of > 4ng/mL among 7 (6.6%) of subjects studied.
Men > 60 had the highest prevalence of raised PSA level (33.3%) compared to those
younger men (p= 0.001). We observed a higher prevalence among farmers (11.1%)
compared to business men, civil servants and students.
Conclusion: In this present study we observed a high prevalence of PSA >4ng/mL
and a positive and significant correlation between age and raised PSA levels among
men in Sokoto, North Western Nigeria. We recommend an annual PSA blood test for
men = 40 years of age and that those with a PSA value > 4.0 ng/mL should be
considered for further evaluation. There is also the need to build capacity among
biomedical and medical staff in Nigeria to facilitate effective diagnosis of prostate
cancer. There is also the need for increased prostate cancer awareness in the area to
facilitate voluntary testing.