acid phosphatase

:  any of the phosphatases that are enzymes active chiefly in acid medium and occur especially in the prostrate gland, liver, spleen, and semen It is clearly important to have an early and unequivocal diagnosis of prostatic carcinoma and small deviations in the level of acid phosphatase in the serum could be due to release from other tissues …—Nicholas C. Price et al., Fundamentals of Enzymology, 1982—compare alkaline phosphatase