A different perspective: Can urine pH be important in the diagnosis of prostate cancer?

Objective: The aim of our study was to investigate emphasis of urinary pH in patients with prostate cancer.

Methods: Patients, who underwent 12-core prostate biopsy because of prostate-specific antigen elevation and suspicious digital rectal examination, were retrospectively reviewed. According to pathology, patients with prostate cancer were classified as group 1, and patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia were classified as group 2. Primary endpoint of this study was the urine pH. The age of two groups and urine pH were compared with each other. Student t test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for the intergroup analysis of continuous variables. A cut-off value for urine pH was determined with a receiver operating characteristic curve. p < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

Results: There were 119 patients in group 1 and 99 patients in group 2. When urine pHs of both groups were compared, group 1 and group 2 were 5.1 ± 0.45 and 5.5 ± 0.79, respectively (p = 0.0001). The cut-off value determined by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis for urine pH was 5.2 (sensitivity: 42%, specificity: 79%, area under the curve: 0.61; 95% CI: [0.53, 0.68]; p = 0.003).

Conclusion: Acidic urine pH may be important for predicting prostate cancer according to this study.