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Archive for the ‘Prostate Specific Antigen’ Category

PSA Levels Predict Prostate Growth

Posted by admin on March 23rd, 2010 No Comments
When men over age 50 have their annual check-ups, the doctor often checks blood levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) to screen for prostate cancer. A new study suggests that PSA levels may also predict prostate growth in men with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), or benign prostatic hypertrophy. The Proscar Long-Term Efficacy and Safety Study enrolled more than 3,000 men over age 50 with a diagnosis of BPH and randomized them to receive either finasteride (Proscar) or placebo for four years. Participants came from 95 centers; at 13 of these centers, 10 percent of the men had MRIs to measure their prostate volume when the study began and each year after. In the current report, the researchers looked at information from the men who'd taken placebo to see what baseline measurements predict growth of the prostate. The size of a man's prostate is a good indicator of problems to come. For example, the larger a man's prostate, the more likely it is that he will have an acute urinary retention problem. Men with large prostates also are less likely to respond to drug treatment and more likely Read more [...]
Posted in Prostate Specific Antigen

Prostate Specific Antigen Testing for Prostate Cancer

Posted by admin on January 29th, 2010 No Comments
A recent analysis of the control arm of the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) has revealed that 15.2% of men with a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) value less than 4 ng/mL had prostate cancer detected via prostate biopsy. Current recommendations suggest PSA levels lower than 4 ng/mL do not indicate clinically significant prostate cancer; thus, the study results are groundbreaking news because no prevalence data for this group of men was previously available. The PCPT trial enrolled men older than 55 with a prostate specific antigen (PSA) value less than 3 ng/mL and an American Urologic Society (AUS) score below 20. The men in this trial were randomly assigned to receive finasteride 5 mg or a matching placebo daily and followed for seven years with annual PSA and digital rectal exam (DRE) screening, with 9,459 men assigned to the placebo arm. After seven years of PSA and DRE screening, the men who never had a PSA higher than 4 ng/mL, an abnormal DRE, prostate surgery of any type, and had a prostate biopsy (minimum of six samples) at the end of the study were evaluated for cancer prevalence. Read more [...]
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Leading Prostate Cancer Test ‘Clinically Useless’

Posted by admin on January 20th, 2010 No Comments
PSA test doesn't detect tumor's severity, Stanford University study says The leading test to detect prostate cancer is "clinically useless" at determining the size or severity of a man's tumor, and is only of "limited" value at predicting cure rates from surgery to remove the diseased gland, a new study says. The test, which measures a blood enzyme called prostate-specific antigen (PSA), is likelier to find benignly enlarged prostates and prompt overly aggressive treatment, according to the scientists who conducted the study. The study, which appears in the January issue of the Journal of Urology, "is quite a disappointment," says Dr. John McNeal, a Stanford University pathologist and a co-author of the paper. "We used to think [PSA testing] was good. But what we would like it to tell us is whether a PSA that is not much elevated is elevated because of [normal prostate growth] or whether it's elevated because of prostate cancer." And the protein, at least at moderate levels, can't do that, McNeal says. Dr. Peter Albertsen, chief of urology at the University of Connecticut in Farmington, Read more [...]
Posted in Prostate Specific Antigen

Surprising Findings about PSA and Prostate Cancer

Posted by admin on January 9th, 2010 No Comments
It is well accepted by urologists that the higher a man's blood level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) prior to treatment for prostate cancer, the worse the prognosis for cure. But new data presented at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association in Atlanta early this month challenges this common wisdom. "Serum PSA drawn preoperatively does not reflect a change in cure rate until the level reaches nine ng/ml. The cure rates by radical prostatectomy are all the same between two and nine ng/ml," stated Dr. Thomas A. Stanley of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He presented his data and conclusions to fellow urologists in a special lecture at the meetings. Dr. Stanley looked at long-term data from 695 men with prostate cancer. As expected, among men with preoperative prostate specific antigen levels above 10 ng/ml, higher PSA levels predicted lower cure rates. But he looked specifically at those men whose PSA levels were between two and nine ng/ml. His surprising findings: the cure rate was about 80 percent across the whole range. "PSA is a very good marker above Read more [...]
Posted in Prostate Specific Antigen

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