UICC World Cancer Congress 2006

Objective: Prostata cancer (PC) incidence has raised slowly before introduction of PSA screening in Latvia. Large number of advanced PC at the time of diagnosis (especially between 50 and 60 years old men) contributed introduction of PSA screening in 1998 with the aim to improve early diagnostic of PC in Latvia and to obtain data for creating National Screening Program.

Methods: Since November 1998, PSA testing was freely available once a year to men aged 50-70 years in Latvia. 8125 samples were tested during 6 year period of screening. All samples were examined for total PSA and those who had PSA level between 3 and 10 ng/ml were tested for free PSA. Patients with abnormal PSA level were recommended to visit family doctor or urologist for future examination.

Results: Total PSA level above 4 ng/ml was observed in 16.8% of all samples. Free/total PSA ratio showed 21.8% below 0.1. During 6 years of PSA screening incidence of PC increased from 40.0 to 71.4 per 100,000 men. Stage I of PC raised from 4.8% to 7.9%. Now PC is the second leading malignancy among the Latvian men. Early diagnosis is improved and large number of free/total PSA ratio allows us to suggest high probability of PC among examined men.