Association between large prostate calculi and prostate cancer

Objective: We investigated the relationship between large prostate calculi and prostate cancer (PCa) risk.
Materials and methods: The medical records of 340 patients who received a prostate biopsy at our institution between January 2015 and August 2016 were reviewed retrospectively. Of the patients, 82 had large prostatic calculi visualised by transrectal ultrasonography and 88 did not or had scarce prostatic calculi. We divided these patients into two groups: patients with large prostatic calculi (group 1) and patients without prostatic calculi (group 2). These groups were compared according to age, total prostate specific antigen (PSA) level, prostate volume, and final pathological diagnosis.
Results: The mean age of all patients was 61.4 ± 6.2 years, the mean total PSA was 12.3 ± 17.4 ng/mL, the mean prostate volume was 41.7 ± 17.6 mL, and the overall cancer detection rate was 31.5%. The cancer detection rates were 41.3% and 22.6% in groups 1 and 2, respectively (p = 0.018). No significant differences in mean age, mean total PSA, or mean prostate volume were observed between the groups.
Conclusions: In the present study, large prostatic calculi were associated with PCa. However, more study is needed to examine the relationship between large prostatic calculi and PCa in more detail. The effects of particularly large prostate calculi in the development of PCa will be a necessary focus of future research.