Evaluation of Serum Sarcosine, Total and Free Testosterone Levels in Patients with Prostate Disorders in Sokoto, Nigeria

Although radiation and surgery are generally regarded as effective for treatment of prostate cancer (PCa) in majority of men, diagnosis and prognosis remains poor in patients with progressive disease. Disease –specific metabolites represent the effective end points with considerable ability to identify men at increased risk of disease progression. In the current study, serum levels of Sarcosine, free and total testosterone (fTesto and tTesto) were assayed to evaluate the tumorigenic properties of PCa in our locality. In this study, 150 prostate cancer, 200 benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) Patients diagnosed and 200 volunteer matched controls were evaluated. Serum sarcosine were 64.94±0.81 nmol/dl, 118.70±1.80 nmol/dl and 134.13±2.21 nmol/dl in PCa, BPH patients and controls respectively. Serum tTesto and fTesto levels were 5.09±0.15 ng/ml, 5.12±0.11 ng/ml and 13.42±0.26 pg/ml, 5.72±0.20 ng/ml, 13.93±0.24 ng/ml and 11.73±0.47 pg/ml in PCa, BPH patients and controls respectively. Values differ significantly (p˂0.05) between PCa, BPH patients and controls in all the analytes. Attempt was also made to define the reference ranges of these analytes in various age groups of the controls. We recommend the inclusion of Serum levels of Sarcosine, tTesto and fTesto into multiplex biomarker panel for PCa and BPH detection in our localities.