Private MD News

Common measure of prostate risk may be unreliable

Category: Prostate

A team of University of California researchers has found that a common measure of prostate cancer risk may be inaccurate at projecting the risk of recurrence. The results underscore the importance for men who have survived prostate cancer to continue with PSA testing to make sure that the condition does not return.

Clinical stage is a measure frequently used by physicians to determine if a man's prostate cancer is returning. Many doctors use this as a first-line indicator of prostate risk.

However, the researchers found that the test is rarely accurate. In fact, after following the medical records of nearly 4,000 men who had survived prostate cancer, they found that clinical stage measures accurately predict disease recurrence less than 36 percent of the time.

Researchers said that human error plays a large role in the high prevalence of inaccurate testing results. However, even after correcting for this problem, the test still proved unreliable.

"Our findings question the utility of our current staging system for localized prostate cancer," said Adam Reece, who led the investigation.

One alternative to clinical stage testing is PSA testing, which may detect dangerous changes in hormone levels, which often presage cancer recurrence.