The Prostate 71:1210 ^1215 (2011) Parathyroid Hormone Is Not Involved in Prostate Growth in Patients With Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Won Tae Kim, 1,2 Young Deuk Choi, 2 Cheol Park, 1 Young-Won Kim, 1 Seok Joong Yun, 1 Isaac Yi Kim, 3 and Wun-Jae Kim 1 * 1 Department of Urology,College of Medicine,Chungbuk National University,Cheongju, South Korea 2 Department of Urology,Graduate School of Medicine,Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea 3 Section of Urological Oncology,The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey BACKGROUND. A recent population-based study reported that serum calcium and para- thyroid hormone stimulate prostate growth. We evaluated whether serum PTH, vitamin D, and calcium levels correlate with prostate size, PSA levels, and obesity in Korean patients with histologically proven BPH. METHODS. Patients with histopathologically proven BPH who underwent transurethral resection of the prostate were enrolled (n ¼ 289). Patients with PSA levels of 3 ng/ml under- went multicore transrectal prostate biopsy before TURP to rule out prostate cancer. Patients with serum creatinine levels >1.4 mg/dl, PSA levels >20 ng/ml, and/or PTH levels <10 pg/ ml were excluded. Correlations between serum parameters and clinical data were determined. After adjustment for potential confounders, including age and body mass index, multiple linear regression served to compute associations. RESULTS. The mean age, serum PSA level, PTH level, and prostate size were 68.13  7.15 years, 4.10  3.88 ng/ml, 24.33  12.52 pg/ml, and 44.27  24.15 g, respectively. Prostate size correlated positively with age (r ¼ 0.209, P < 0.001) and PSA levels (r ¼ 0.481, P < 0.001), and PSA levels correlated positively with age (r ¼ 0.226, P < 0.001) and prostate size (r ¼ 0.481, P < 0.001), but neither variable correlated with PTH, vitamin D, calcium levels, or BMI. Upon multiple adjusted linear regression analysis, prostate size correlated with BMI and serum PSA (both P < 0.001), and serum PSA levels correlated with BMI and prostate size (P ¼ 0.007, P < 0.001, respectively), but neither variable correlated with PTH, vitamin D, or serum calcium levels. CONCLUSIONS. In Korean patients with histopathologically proven BPH, high PTH, vitamin D, and calcium levels do not stimulate prostate growth. Prostate 71: 1210–1215, 2011. # 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc. KEY WORDS: prostatic hyperplasia; prostate; parathyroid hormone INTRODUCTION Benign prostatic hyperplasia is the most common disease of the prostate in aging men. The prevalence of BPH rises with age, with over 80% of men older than 80 years suffering from BPH [1]. Although the exact pathogenesis of BPH is not known, aging and testos- terone levels are the most important factors for devel- oping BPH [2]. In addition, religion, socioeconomic factors, sexual activity, alcohol intake, hypertension, and dietary factors are associated with BPH [3]. Prostate cells express the receptor for vitamin D [4] and Konety et al. [5] have reported that vitamin D may Grant sponsor: Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Korea; Grant number: 2010-0063257; Grant sponsor: Ministry of Health & Welfare of Korea; Grant number: A100651-1011-0000100; Grant sponsor: Tanzman Foundation and John Runyan’s Score for the Cure. *Correspondence to: Wun-Jae Kim, MD, PhD, Department of Urology, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University, 62, Kaeshin-dong, Heungduk-ku, Cheongju, Chungbuk 361-711, South Korea. E-mail: wjkim@chungbuk.ac.kr Received 13 November 2010; Accepted 8 December 2010 DOI 10.1002/pros.21336 Published online 12 January 2011 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). ß 2011Wiley-Liss, Inc.