A large body of evidence supports a relationship between benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and prostate cancer (PCa) and several studies have shown that considerable overlap exists in their pathogenesis and diagnostic modalities. Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) is a sensitive marker for PCa, but it is not sufficiently specific to differentiate between BPH and PCa at intermediate values. Sensitive and specific biochemical marker that would complement PSA and alleviate the potential harm and cost of screening associated with PSA-based screening, is imperative. This work evaluated the possible diagnostic role of lipids, cadmium and calcium in BPH and PCa in 90 age-matched participants divided into 3 groups of participants with histopathological diagnosis of BPH, PCa, and controls. Anthropometric characteristics, total prostate specific antigen, lipids (total-cholesterol, triglyceride, LDLcholesterol, HDL-cholesterol), cadmium, calcium, albumin and zinc levels were determined and expressed as the mean ±SD. Significant differences were observed in plasma level of albumin, lipids (total cholesterol, LDLcholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, triglyceride) and calcium between study participants and the controls, but only triglyceride and calcium differed significantly between participants with BPH and PCa (P Ã?â?¹Ã?â?? 0.05). Cut-off from ROC with sensitivity and specificity of 70.8% and 68% respectively for BPH and PCa gave a discriminating value of 1.15mmol/L (101.77mg/dL) for triglyceride. This present findings support the hypothesis that serum lipid could be useful in discriminating patients with BPH from prostate cancer patients and also complement PSA-based diagnosis of prostate cancer. Further studies are needed to determine if the variation observed in triglyceride level between BPH and PCa is sustainable.
