Objectives: To assess the diagnostic performance of the major electrophoretic subforms of free prostate-specific antigen (PSA), named F2 and F3, for differentiating between benign and malignant prostatic disease in men with total PSA (tPSA) concentrations up to 10 microg/L.
Methods: In sera from 50 patients with prostate cancer (PCa) and 44 men without evidence of malignancy (NPCa), F2 and F3 were quantified by two-dimensional electrophoresis and Western blotting. The F2/F3 ratios were compared with the conventional parameter tPSA and percentage fPSA/tPSA ratio (%fPSA) in univariate and multivariate analyses using receiver operating characteristic analysis.