DefinePK

Abstract

Objective: To determine NKX3.1 score for differentiation of prostate carcinoma from Benign Prostate Hyperplasia in a subset of the Karachi population.Methods: This is a case-control study. The paraffin fixed tissue blocks were collected from “The laboratory”, Saddar, Karachi, from January 2020 – March 2023. The processing and experiment were conducted at Ziauddin University. A total of 100 tissue blocks were collected, out of which 45 were cases of prostate adenocarcinoma and 55 were controls of benign prostatic hyperplasia. Clinico-pathological data was also collected. Non – probability convenient sampling was done. Only recently diagnosed cases of BPH and PCA were included after histopathological confirmation. Any secondary pathology of the prostate was excluded. The expression of NKX3.1 was evaluated using the immunohistochemistry protocol on biopsies of cases and controls. Quantitative analysis of age, serum PSA levels, and NKX3.1 score was expressed as Mean±S.D/median [IQR]. Frequency (%) of family history of prostate cancer was done in qualitative analysis. Binary logistic regression was applied with Univariate and multivariate analysis. P-value d”0.25 was considered significant for Univariate analysis and P-value d”0.05 was considered significant for multivariate analysis.Results: Our study found that the average age for PCA was 69.641±1.162 years, while the median [IQR] for BPH was 66 [5] years. The median [IQR] of PSA level for PCA was 16.28 [12.05] ng/dl, while the Mean±S.D for BPH was 3.93±0.19 ng/dl. Age, NKX3.1 score, and family history of prostate cancer in the multivariate model showed statistically significant P-value and odds ratio with 95% C.I.Conclusion: Our data showed that the NKX3.1 score can differentiate PCA from BPH in Univariate and multivariate analyses. IHC staining for NKX3.1 can be useful and included in a discriminatory IHC panel when the diagnosis of PCA cannot be made using PSA alone.