The P.S.A. (Prostate Specific Antigen) test assigns a number and usually anything over 4 at any time is cause for concern of the possibility of developing prostate cancer. This study zeros in on the P.S.A. number at age 60 as a predictor of the probability of dying from the disease. The PSA (blood) test costs around $70 in my area if you're uninsured.
BTW Prostate cancer is more common in men than breast cancer is in women.
From Today's New York Times:
"About one in four men will have a P.S.A. score of 2.0 or higher at the age of 60, and most of them will not develop prostate cancer, said the study’s lead author, Andrew Vickers, associate attending research methodologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. But the score does put them in a higher-risk group of men who have more to gain from regular screening, he concluded.
The higher the score at age 60, the greater the long-term risk of dying from prostate cancer, Dr. Vickers and his colleagues found. Men with a score of 2.0 or higher at age 60 were 26 times more likely to eventually die of the disease than 60-year-old men with scores below 1.0.
Still, the absolute risks for men with elevated scores were lower than might be expected. A 60-year-old man with a P.S.A. score just over 2.0 had an individual risk of dying from prostate cancer during the next 25 years of about 6 percent, the researchers found. A 60-year-old man with a P.S.A. score of 5 had about a 17 percent risk.
“Most of those men are going to be absolutely fine,” said Dr. Vickers. “But they can be told they are at high risk and they need screening.”
Men with a P.S.A. score of 1.0 or lower at age 60 had a very low individual risk of death from prostate cancer over the next 25 years, the study found: just 0.2 percent.
“They can be reassured that even if they have prostate cancer or get it, it’s unlikely to become life-threatening,” said Dr. Vickers. “There’s a strong case that they should be exempted from screening.”
The advice is less clear for men with scores between 1.0 and 2.0 at the age of 60. They still have a very low individual risk of dying from prostate cancer, judging from the new data. The long-term risk of dying from prostate cancer ranged from about 1 percent to 3 percent for these men, and the decision to screen may depend on their personal views and family histories, Dr. Vickers said.
While the findings don’t answer all of the questions associated with P.S.A. screening, they should give peace of mind to sizable numbers of men who decide not to continue regular testing. The results also will reassure men who decide to continue with regular screenings that the benefits most likely outweigh the risks."
Complete article:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/simplifying-the-decision-for-a-prostate-screening/?src=me&ref=general
