Serum prostate specific antigen levels during hyperthermia treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia.

To understand better the tissue and cell changes occurring in the human prostate as a reaction to heat, we used circulating prostate specific antigen as a marker to detect cell injury. The prostate in 18 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia was heated to 42 +/- 1.5C with local microwaves at 915 MHz. Each treatment sessions lasted 1 hour and the patients underwent 5 treatment sessions. A total of 90 treatment sessions was performed among 18 patients. No significant difference was observed between pre-treatment and post-treatment serum prostate specific antigen levels. We conclude that local hyperthermia is an atraumatic treatment modality that does not exert its effect on the hyperplastic prostate via a cytotoxic insult to prostate epithelial tissues.