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To screen or not to screen: an Australian “discrete choice experiment”
The question of whether men should be regularly screened for risk of prostate cancer through the use of the PSA test is (at least) controversial — and a matter that some in the prostate cancer...
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PSA levels and eligibility for active surveillance
The general rule has been that only men with low-risk prostate cancer are suitable as possible candidates for active surveillance. Low risk is defined as a PSA < 10 ng/ml; a Gleason score of ≤ 6;...
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What should one do if one’s PSA remains detectable after radical prostatectomy?
After surgery, PSA should become “undetectable” on a normal PSA test (i.e., < 0.1 ng/ml) within a month or two, but sometimes it remains elevated. The primary purpose of the ARO 96-02 randomized...
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Correlating baseline PSA levels to future 10-year risk of prostate cancer...
A new paper in the Journal of Urology represents an initial attempt, based on a prospective, multi-ethnic cohort of nearly 3,000 men, to determine whether baseline PSA levels can predict, with a high...
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Long-term survival of hormone-naive patients in biochemical failure post-surgery
A new paper in the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging provides some interesting data on the long-term survival of men with progressive prostate cancer after initial treatment by...
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Fallout from elimination of PSA data from the SEER database
On April 29 this year, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) announced a decision to eliminate all PSA data from their current data files because of apparent inaccuracies in the ways that such data had...
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New recommendations from the AUA through “Choosing Wisely” initiative
Yesterday the American Urology Association (AUA) issued a second set of five recommendations to its members through the Choosing Wisely initiative (which is coordinated by the ABIM Foundation). Two of...
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PSA screening rates: 2005 to 2013
Numerous publications over the past 3 years have addressed the actual and potential consequences of the the US Preventive Services Task Force’s (USPSTF’s) statement discouraging the use of routine...
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The impact of bicycling on PSA levels … and risk for prostate cancer
Over the years it has been suggested, on and off, that bicycling may have impact on a man’s PSA levels and therefore on his potential risk for diagnosis of prostate cancer. However, there has never...
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Radiation therapy may improve survival even when PSA ≥ 75 ml/ml
Sometimes, when patients originally present with very high PSA levels, a negative bone scan, and a negative CT scan, they are put on permanent androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) because the doctor...
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One man’s OpEd is not the only form of truth
Yesterday, Dr. Deepak Kapoor, a urologist and the Chairman of Health Policy for the Large Urology Group Practice Association (LUGPA), published his opinions about PSA testing and risk for prostate...
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The pomegranate extract effect … redux
According to an article just published in the journal Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases, any effect of taking pomegranate extract in delaying prostate cancer progression over time after first-line...
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Legal risk for physicians and use/non-use of PSA testing
Dr. Gerald Chodak has raised an interesting reason why physicians may want to think hard about the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s recommendation on the value of PSA testing for risk of prostate...
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Polygenicity, risk for prostate cancer, and the need for regular testing
A new study in the British Journal of Cancer suggests that knowledge of the presence of low or high numbers of known prostate cancer-related genes (polygenicity) “could” be helpful in determining which...
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Do African Americans with low-risk prostate cancer have lower PSA density...
There have been a number of suggestions (as yet unproven) that African American men (and perhaps other men of black African ethnicity) may be less good candidates for active surveillance than men of...
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Johns Hopkins: ultrasensitive PSA after surgery predicts biochemical relapse
We’ve looked at several retrospective studies this year that found that early ultrasensitive PSA (uPSA) results following surgery can reliably predict eventual biochemical relapse. Johns Hopkins...
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Low PSA, high Gleason score at diagnosis predicts very high risk
There have long been suggestions that men with high-risk disease who initially present with relatively low PSA levels (< 2.5 ng/ml) may be at higher than average risk for prostate cancer-specific...
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To test or not to test … that IS the question!
The “New” Prostate Cancer InfoLink has been at pains over the past few years to distinguish clearly between the use of PSA tests (and now other tests that are slightly more sophisticated) to test...
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Screening and the incidence of newly diagnosed, metastatic prostate cancer...
Another article in this week’s issue of the New England Medical Journal is going to re-fuel the fire among those who advocate for widespread, frequent screening of men for risk of prostate cancer....
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USPSTF to re-assess harms and benefits of PSA-based screening for risk of...
Yesterday the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) posted detailed information about a new draft research plan related to screening for prostate cancer. The USPSTF is seeking public comment on...
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