Health
Rapidly rising PSA linked to prostate cancer mortality
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted July 26, 2004
A new finding that links a sharp rise in prostate-specific antigen to a man's risk of dying from prostate cancer may help make the difficult decision of how to treat the cancer a bit easier.
The study, published in the July 8 New England Journal of Medicine, found that men with rapidly rising PSA velocity -- more than 2.0 ng/mL per year -- had a greater risk of dying from the cancer than did men with more slowly rising scores.
The study analyzed data from more than 1,000 men who had undergone surgery for prostate cancer.
While a substantial proportion of men in the age group most affected by prostate cancer die of other causes, the death rate from the disease remains high, with 82 men dying of the cancer every day, write Johns Hopkins physicians Mario Eisenberger, MD, and Alan Partin, MD, PhD, in an editorial in the same issue.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/07/26/hlbf0726.htm.
