A systematic review of the cadmium content of the normal human prostate gland

There is much lack of knowledge concerning most prostatic malfunction, especially the reasons and detailed nature of its pathologies.  In spite of advances in medical science, the differential diagnosis of prostatic pathologies has steadily increased in complexity and controversy.  A proposal has been made that prostatic cadmium (Cd) content determinations may aid in resolving these issues for prostate disorders and especially as an indicator of its carcinoma risk.  As a result many measurements of normal prostatic Cd have been made.  Here we analyze data published concerning Cd prostatic levels in healthy subjects.  In all 1889 items in the literature of the years dating back to 1921 were identified in the following databases: PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Scopus, Web of Science and ELSEVIER-EMBASE.  This data was subject to an analysis employing both the “range” and “median” of means.  From the papers examined, 36 were selected for the objective analysis of data from their 1215 healthy patients.  On a wet mass basis their prostatic Cd levels spanned the interval from 0.012 mg/kg to <0.76 mg/kg with 0.138 mg/kg as the median of their means. It is accepted that the prostatic Cd content is contingent on a wide variety of aspects of the host’s milieu, including androgen levels, presence or absence of tobacco use, Cd content of food and drink, age, environmental levels of Cd and the method of analysis.  The data encompassed a wide range of values and the sample was small, hence it is advisable that further studies be performed.