PSA Screening

Abstract Objectives Limited data are available concerning the extent to which the initial prostate-specific antigen (PSA) measurement in men younger than age 60 predicts for the risk of prostate cancer (CaP) and how this compares to other known risk factors. Methods From 1991 to 2001, 13,943 men younger than 60 years old participated in a CaP screening study. Men aged 40 to 49 years were eligible for the study if they had a positive family history or African-American heritage, and men older than 50 years were screened without respect to risk factors. The CaP detection rate, PSA velocity, pathologic features,

Tide of opinion turning again In 2012, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) — a powerful, voluntary group that sets guidelines for primary care physicians — came out against the mass screening of healthy men with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood tests for the early detection of prostate cancer. That statement, which was somewhat reversed in 2018, has lived on and continues to fuel hot debates over the use of screening and whether the guidelines themselves caused more harm than benefit. And there likely will be more arguments in the years ahead as medical groups conduct uptakes on guidelines and

Benefits of PSA Test for Prostate Cancer Substantially Greater than Generally Appreciated The benefits of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test to screen men for prostate cancer may be greater than the harm, say investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, University of Washington School of Medicine and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. While organizations such as the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) and the American Academy of Family Physicians have been lukewarm or opposed to the routine use of the PSA test, in a commentary published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the investigators demonstrate that these recommendations

A new type of test that uses complex sugars to detect prostate cancer earlier and with greater accuracy is being developed by researchers at the University of Birmingham. The test works by identifying sugars, known as glycans, in blood. These sugars are attached to protein molecules called PSA and are known to undergo distinct but subtle changes when cancer is present in the body. Read the article.

The PSA has allowed us to detect cancer at an earlier stage, and it has reduced the number of men with widespread metastasis from 40 per cent to less than five per cent. Too much ink and angst have been spilled in debating whether the PSA blood test should be used to screen for prostate cancer. Read the article.