History of Prostate Specific Antigen

Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) has become an indispensable tumor marker for the diagnosis, staging, and treatment of prostate cancer 35 years after the discovery. Nevertheless, various discussions on PSA are ongoing. One of the oldest discussions is about the discovery of PSA. In 1984, T. Ming Chu was named PSA's explorer. The protein was patented on its name with patent number 4446122. Chu collected all the prizes. But many other scientists, such as Rubin Hyman Flocks and Richard J. Ablin, had an undeniable share in discovering the antigen. Flocks set out to achieve a prostate-specific protein in the planning phase of his work. He did not realize that the protein he had discovered was prostate specific. In this case, Flocks may be the first to discover the antigen chronologically. We can compare the fate of Flocks to Christopher Columbus. Americo Vespuci saw that the lands he reached were unknown places and gave his name there. That's exactly what T. Ming Chu did. There is almost no reference to Flocks in the articles. Rubin Hyman Flocks, however, has made quite accurate decisions about the PSA. The discovery led to radical changes in the approach to prostate cancer. Nevertheless, there is no Nobel Prize yet. This was interpreted as an indirect indication that the debate on PSA discovery is still alive