Comparison of human prostatic acid phosphatase by measurement of enzymatic activity and by radioimmunoassay.

We compared results of measurement of prostatic acid phosphatase activity in serum and various tissues by enzymatic assay and radioimmunoassay. By enzymatic assay, activity in serum is lost rapidly, even at room temperature. In contrast, there was no change in antigenic activity during 48 h by radioimmunoassay. The radioimmunoassay was more specific in 12 tissues and in serum than were several enzymatic assays that make use of inhibitors of the enzyme. The enzymatic assay resulted in 26.6% (24/90) false positives from non-prostatic cancer patients. In contrast, with radioimmunoassay there were only 5.5% (5/90) false positives. We conclude that immunological detection of prostatic acid phosphatase is the more reliable technique.