Epidemiological description and trajectories of patients with prostate cancer in Denmark: an observational study of 7448 patients.

OBJECTIVE: Identification of patients at high risk of aggressive prostate cancer is a major clinical challenge. With the view of developing artificial intelligence-based methods for identification of these patients, we are constructing a comprehensive clinical database including 7448 prostate cancer (PCa) Danish patients. In this paper we provide an epidemiological description and patients' trajectories of this retrospective observational population, to contribute to the understanding of the characteristics and pathways of PCa patients in Denmark. RESULTS: Individuals receiving a PCa diagnosis during 2008-2014 in Region Southern Denmark were identified, and all diagnoses, operations, investigations, and biochemistry analyses, from 4 years prior, to 5 years after PCa diagnosis were obtained. About 85.1% were not diagnosed with metastatic PCa during the study period (unaggressive PCa); 9.2% were simultaneously diagnosed with PCa and metastasis (aggressive-advanced PCa), while 5.7% were not diagnosed with metastatic PCa at first, but they were diagnosed with metastasis at some point during the 5 years follow-up (aggressive-not advanced PCa). Patients with unaggressive PCa had more clinical investigations directly related to PCa detection (prostate ultrasounds and biopsies) during the 4 years prior to PCa diagnosis, compared to patients with aggressive PCa, which may have contributed to the early detection of PCa.

Plasma Chemokine C-C Motif Ligand 2 as a Potential Biomarker for Prostate Cancer.

PURPOSE: Serum levels of the polypeptide chemokine C-C motif ligand 2 (CCL2) have previously shown potential as a prostate cancer diagnostic and prognostic biomarker. Plasma CCL2 levels may be superior to serum levels as a biomarker because of their potentially lower signal-to-noise ratio. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Before initiating a large comparative study of plasma and serum CCL2 levels, we performed a prospective, diagnostic pilot study Of 133 individuals from a clinically relevant population. CCL2 plasma levels were measured using a validated assay kit. Plasma was obtained independently of digital rectal examination. RESULTS: In this pilot study, we found no relationship between CCL2 plasma values and risk of proven prostate cancer, whereas previous studies found a strong diagnostic relationship between CCL2 serum values and prostate cancer. CONCLUSION: Our contribution to the existing literature strengthens the idea that early in the pathological process, CCL2 mainly circulates in large, membrane-enclosed compartments, whereas plasma CCL2 levels increase markedly during disease progression. We conclude that whereas plasma CCL2 levels are not useful as a diagnostic measure, a ratio of CCL2 plasma to serum levels may prove useful as a marker of disease progression, which warrants further study.