Pretreatment total testosterone levels in patients with prostate cancer in the past two decades in Japan

Background: Many studies have shown the relationship between pretreatment serum testosterone levels and the clinical stage or histological grade, but the clinical significance of pretreatment testosterone levels is controversial. We studied the association of pretreatment total testosterone levels with the clinical stage and histological grade of prostate cancer. Methods: We evaluated 2914 patients whose pretreatment testosterone levels were recorded from 1982 to 2002. Serum testosterone levels were measured by radioimmunoassay. Results: There was a trend toward decreasing testosterone values with worsening clinical staging. There was a trend toward decreasing testosterone values with worsening histological grading, too. Patients with poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma had significantly lower testosterone levels than those with the others (versus well; p < 0.01, moderately; p < 0.01). Conclusions: Newly diagnosed patients with poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma of prostate have lower testosterone levels than the others.