scholarly journals Screening for prostate cancer: How to manage in 2006

2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 19-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Lobel

National Societies usually recommend screening for Prostate Cancer (PC) with Serum Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) and digital rectal examination annually beginning at age 50. In high risk population including men with a family history of PC or African population screening should start at age of 45 years. PSA has been widely used to detect PC despite the fact that PSA is not specific for PC. Over the years serum PSA level of greater than 4,0ng/ml was considered the threshold to perform prostate biopsy, searching for PC. In 2005 the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) demonstrated that the cut-off of 4,0ng/ml for PSA is not anymore adapted1 due to the fact that this survey found in 15% of men with PSA < or = 4,0ng/ml a prostate cancer on sextant biopsies. Today the value of PSA and the cut-off for Prostate biopsy is questioned suggesting that PSA level higher than 2,6ng/ml must be the case to propose Prostate Biopsy. Catalona confirms that approximately 25% to 30% of men with PSA 2,6 to 4,0ng/ml have prostate cancer2. Schr?der and Gosselaar3 assert that screening for PC at low PSA levels (<4,0ng/ml) risks to detect clinically insignificant cancers which are no threat to man. So far in the year 2006 screening for PC demonstrates accumulating evidences of efficacy but persistent uncertainty4. The major question for an urologist at work when facing a young men searching early diagnosis of PC is: at which level of PSA do we have to perform rectal biopsy ?.

Medicina ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kęstutis Vaičiūnas ◽  
Stasys Auškalnis ◽  
Aivaras Matjošaitis ◽  
Darius Trumbeckas ◽  
Mindaugas Jievaltas

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relevance of prostate gland volume, transitional zone volume, and transitional zone index for the detection of prostate cancer by the first sextant biopsy. Material and methods. A total of 121 men with high risk of prostate cancer were included in our study (prostate-specific antigen level higher than 4 ng/mL and/or pathological digital rectal examination). We consulted the patients in Outpatient Department of Kaunas University of Medicine Hospital during 2003–2006. Total prostate volume and transition zone volume were measured, and all patients underwent transrectal ultrasoundguided sextant biopsy of the prostate. According to histological results of prostate biopsy, patients were divided into two groups: benign group (benign prostate hyperplasia and high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia) and prostate cancer group. Statistical analysis was made by SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) 12.0.1 for Windows. Results. After histological examination, prostate cancer was detected in 20.7% of patients (n=25). Prostate cancer was found in 24.6% of patients with a total prostate volume of less than 60 cm3 and only in 8.2% of patients with a total prostate volume greater than 60 cm3 (P=0.026). Prostate cancer was found in 27.1% of patients with transition zone volume smaller than 30 cm3 and only in 7.5% of patients with transition zone volume greater than 30 cm3 (P=0.007). A statistically significant difference was found when patients were divided into the groups according to transition zone index: when transition zone index was lower than 0.45, prostate cancer was detected in 37.1% of patients, and when transition zone index was higher than 0.45, prostate cancer was observed in 9.1% of patients (P=0.001). The possibility to detect prostate cancer was 5.9 times higher in patients with transition zone index lower than 0.45. Conclusions. Prostate cancer detection rate by first sextant prostate biopsy in patients with elevated prostate-specific antigen level and/or pathological digital rectal examination was higher when total prostate volume was less than 60 cm3, transition zone was less than 30 cm3, and transition zone index was less than 0.45.


BMC Urology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Carbunaru ◽  
Oluwarotimi S. Nettey ◽  
Pooja Gogana ◽  
Irene B. Helenowski ◽  
Borko Jovanovic ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Predictive models that take race into account like the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial Risk Calculator 2.0 (PCPT RC) and the new Prostate Biopsy Collaborative Group (PBCG) RC have been developed to equitably mitigate the overdiagnosis of prostate specific antigen (PSA) screening. Few studies have compared the performance of both calculators across racial groups. Methods From 1485 prospectively recruited participants, 954 men were identified undergoing initial prostate biopsy for abnormal PSA or digital rectal examination in five Chicago hospitals between 2009 and 2014. Discrimination, calibration, and frequency of avoided biopsies were calculated to assess the performance of both risk calculators. Results Of 954 participants, 463 (48.5%) were Black, 355 (37.2%) were White, and 136 (14.2%) identified as Other. Biopsy results were as follows: 310 (32.5%) exhibited no cancer, 323 (33.9%) indolent prostate cancer, and 321 (33.6%) clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa). Differences in area under the curve (AUC)s for the detection of csPCa between PCPT and PBCG were not statistically different across all racial groups. PBCG did not improve calibration plots in Blacks and Others, as it showed higher levels of overprediction at most risk thresholds. PCPT led to an increased number of avoidable biopsies in minorities compared to PBCG at the 30% threshold (68% vs. 28% of all patients) with roughly similar rates of missed csPCa (23% vs. 20%). Conclusion Significant improvements were noticed in PBCG’s calibrations and net benefits in Whites compared to PCPT. Since PBCG’s improvements in Blacks are disputable and potentially biases a greater number of low risk Black and Other men towards unnecessary biopsies, PCPT may lead to better biopsy decisions in racial minority groups. Further comparisons of commonly used risk calculators across racial groups is warranted to minimize excessive biopsies and overdiagnosis in ethnic minorities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 430-437
Author(s):  
GUSTAVO DAVID LUDWIG ◽  
HENRIQUE PERES ROCHA ◽  
LÚCIO JOSÉ BOTELHO ◽  
MAIARA BRUSCO FREITAS

ABSTRACT Objective: to develop a predictive model to estimate the probability of prostate cancer prior to biopsy. Methods: from September 2009 to January 2014, 445 men underwent prostate biopsy in a radiology service. We excluded from the study patients with diseases that could compromise the data analysis, who had undergone prostatic resection or used 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors. Thus, we selected 412 patients. Variables included in the model were age, prostate specific antigen (PSA), digital rectal examination, prostate volume and abnormal sonographic findings. We constructed Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves and calculated the areas under the curve, as well as the model's Positive Predictive Value (PPV) . Results: of the 412 men, 155 (37.62%) had prostate cancer (PC). The mean age was 63.8 years and the median PSA was 7.22ng/ml. In addition, 21.6% and 20.6% of patients had abnormalities on digital rectal examination and image suggestive of cancer by ultrasound, respectively. The median prostate volume and PSA density were 45.15cm3 and 0.15ng/ml/cm3, respectively. Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that only five studied risk factors are predictors of PC in the study (p<0.05). The PSA density was excluded from the model (p=0.314). The area under the ROC curve for PC prediction was 0.86. The PPV was 48.08% for 95%sensitivity and 52.37% for 90% sensitivity. Conclusion: the results indicate that clinical, laboratory and ultrasound data, besides easily obtained, can better stratify the risk of patients undergoing prostate biopsy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-79
Author(s):  
Dinesh Chataut ◽  
Babin Basnet ◽  
Benu Lohani ◽  
Sundar Suwal ◽  
Sharma Paudel ◽  
...  

Introduction Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancer in elderly male. Suspicion of prostate cancer is based on increased Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) level and abnormal digital rectal examination (DRE) findings. Transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS) can detect and localize hypoechoic lesions in prostate which are considered as suspicious for malignancy. TRUS can also guide for prostate biopsy, which is the gold standard for diagnosis of prostate cancer. The study was aimed to find out TRUS findings in suspected prostate cancer patients and correlate these findings with histopathological findings. MethodsProspective study was done in 66 males of age >40 years, sent for prostate biopsy in suspicion for prostate cancer (PSA >4 ng/ml, and/or abnormal DRE findings). Prostate was evaluated with TRUS and subsequently underwent TRUS guided six core biopsy of prostate. Total 396 cores of biopsy were taken. Histopathology reports were collected and correlated with the TRUS findings. ResultsTwenty three patients were positive for prostate cancer and 14 of them showed hypoechoic lesions in TRUS. Total 81 suspicious hypoechoic lesions were seen in prostate of all the patients and among them 42 lesions matched with histopathology report for cancer. Cancerous focus detection rate of TRUS was 51.85%. ConclusionTRUS is a supplementary tool in diagnosis of prostate cancer, however when used alone it has less sensitivity for detection of prostate cancer.


Author(s):  
Carsten Stephan ◽  
Monika Jung ◽  
Silke Rabenhorst ◽  
Ergin Kilic ◽  
Klaus Jung

AbstractMicroRNAs (miRNAs) have shown to be promising novel biomarkers in various cancers. We aimed to translate the results of an own previous tissue-based miRNA profile of prostate carcinoma (PCa) with upregulated miR-183 and downregulated miR-205 into a urine-based testing procedure for diagnosis of PCa.Urine sediments were prepared from urine samples collected after a standardized digital-rectal examination (DRE) of patients undergoing prostate biopsy with PSA (prostate-specific antigen) values <20 μg/L in consecutive order. According to the sample-size calculation (α=0.05, power=0.95), 38 patients each with PCa and without PCa were randomly enrolled in this study. PCA3 (prostate cancer associated 3) in urine as Food and Drug Administration-approved assay was determined as reference standard for comparison. The miRNAs were measured by RT-qPCR using TaqMan assays and normalized using different approaches.Both miRNAs were correlated to the mRNA PSA concentrations in the sediments indicating a relationship to the released prostate cells after DRE. However, they had no discriminating capacity between patients with and without PCa. In contrast, PCA3 clearly differentiated between these two patients groups. There was also no significant correlation between miRNAs and standard clinicopathologic variables like Gleason score and serum PSA.The data of our study show that miR-183 and miR-205 failed to detect early and aggressive PCa despite their highly dysregulated expression in cancer tissue. Our results and the critical evaluation of the few data of other studies raise serious doubts concerning the capability of urinary miRNAs to replace or improve PCA3 as predictive marker for prostate biopsy outcome.


2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 212-212
Author(s):  
Danilo Zani ◽  
Silvia Costa ◽  
Lorenzo Gatti ◽  
Nicola Pesenti ◽  
Alberto Pettenò ◽  
...  

Background and aim The specific causes of prostate cancer (Pca) are unknown but the main risk factors of tumor development are associated with age, genetic factors, ethnicity, diet and lifestyle. Prostate cancer is rare in men under 45 years of age, but becomes more common with advancing age. The main diagnostic tools for demonstrating the presence of PCa include digital rectal examination, transrectal ultrasonography, and serum measurement of prostate specific antigen (PSA) followed by prostate biopsy for confirmation of the diagnosis. While the measurement of PSA levels has revolutionized the diagnosis of PCa, it has also increased its overdiagnosis due to the poor diagnostic accuracy. Scientific evidence indicates that biomarkers for different types of cancer such as liver and colorectal cancer circulate in the blood associated with immunoglobulin M (IgM) to form complexes that allow a better diagnosis in comparison to circulating free biomarkers. In prostate cancer it has been demonstrated that testing for serum levels of the PSA-IgM immune complex improves the diagnostic performance of total PSA. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of PSA-IgM compared to total PSA for the selection of patients to be submitted to transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy. Patients and methods Serum samples from 67 male patients, 33 affected by PCa with a Gleason score from 5 to 7, and 34 affected by benign prostate hypertrophy (BPH), were collected by the Department of Urology of the Spedali Civili of Brescia. The samples were immediately snap frozen at −80°C. Serum levels of PSA-IgM were assessed using Prostate-IC (Xeptagen, Italy) while PSA levels were determined with the Immulite 2000 of Medical Systems S.p.A. Results Patients were stratified into 2 groups according to age; the first group consisted of 24 patients with PCa and 20 with BPH aged between 60 and 70 years and the second group consisted of 9 patients with PCa and 14 with BPH aged between 70 and 80 years. Serum levels of PSA and PSA-IgM were analyzed in the 2 groups using cutoff values of 4 ng/mL for PSA and 145 AU/mL for PSA-IgM. In the first group, 1 8 of 24 PCa patients were positive for PSA (75% sensitivity) with a specificity of 50% (10 of 20 BPH patients), and 1 0 of 24 PCa patients were positive with the PSA-IgM assay (42% sensitivity), which had a higher specificity (70%; 6 of 20 BPH patients). The combination of both biomarkers resulted in a sensitivity of 38% (9 of 24 patients with PCa) but showed a significant improvement in specificity up to 90%, since 18 of 20 patients with BPH were negative for at least one test. In the second group of patients aged 70 to 80 years, the PSA test had a sensitivity of 67% (6/9 PCa patients) and a specificity of 78% (3/14 BPH patients) compared with a sensitivity of 44% for the PSA-IgM test (4/9 PCa patients) with a specificity of 71% (4/14 BPH patients). The combination of PSA and PSA-IgM had a sensitivity of 30% (3/9) but the highest specificity (93%, 13/14 BPH patients). Conclusion The results of the study demonstrate the diagnostic value of the PSA-IgM assay compared with the total PSA test. The combination of PSA-IgM with total PSA was the best approach to reduce the number of false-positive results, thus improving the diagnosis of prostate cancer.


2006 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 1089-1095 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Groskopf ◽  
Sheila MJ Aubin ◽  
Ina Lim Deras ◽  
Amy Blase ◽  
Sharon Bodrug ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Prostate cancer gene 3 (PCA3) encodes a prostate-specific mRNA that has shown promise as a prostate cancer diagnostic tool. This report describes the characterization of a prototype quantitative PCA3-based test for whole urine. Methods: Whole-urine specimens were collected after digital rectal examination from 3 groups: men scheduled for prostate biopsy (n = 70), healthy men (&lt;45 years of age with no known prostate cancer risk factors; n = 52), and men who had undergone radical prostatectomy (n = 21). PCA3 and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) mRNAs were isolated, amplified, and quantified by use of Gen-Probe DTS400® Systems. Prostate biopsy results were correlated with the PCA3/PSA mRNA ratio, and PSA mRNA concentrations were used to normalize PCA3 signals and confirm the yield of prostate-specific RNA. Assay precision, specimen stability, and mRNA yield were also evaluated. Results: The specimen informative rate (fraction of specimens yielding sufficient RNA for analysis) was 98.2%. In this clinical research study, ROC curve analysis of prebiopsy specimens yielded an area under the curve of 0.746; sensitivity was 69% and specificity 79%. Serum PSA assay specificity was 28% for this same group. PCA3 and PSA mRNAs were undetectable in postprostatectomy specimens except for one man with recurrent prostate cancer. Assay interrun CVs were ≤12%. Both mRNAs were stable in processed urine up to 5 days at 4 °C and after 5 freeze–thaw cycles. Conclusion: The APTIMA® PCA3 assay combines simple specimen processing with precise assays and existing instruments and could add specificity to the current algorithm for prostate cancer diagnosis.


2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (36) ◽  
pp. 4338-4344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Tangen ◽  
Phyllis J. Goodman ◽  
Cathee Till ◽  
Jeannette M. Schenk ◽  
M. Scott Lucia ◽  
...  

Purpose To identify factors related to who undergoes a prostate biopsy in a screened population and to estimate the impact of biopsy verification on risk factor–prostate cancer associations. Patients and Methods Men who were screened regularly from the placebo arms of two large prostate cancer prevention trials (Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial [PCPT] and Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial [SELECT]) were examined to define incident prostate cancer cohorts. Because PCPT had an end-of-study biopsy, prostate cancer cases were categorized by a preceding prostate-specific antigen/digital rectal examination prompt (yes/no) and noncases by biopsy-proven negative status (yes v no). We estimated the association of risk factors (age, ethnicity, family history, body mass index, medication use) with prostate cancer and quantified differences in risk associations across cohorts. Results Men 60 to 69 years of age, those with benign prostatic hyperplasia, and those with a family history of prostate cancer were more likely, and those with a higher body mass index (≥ 25), diabetes, or a smoking history were less likely, to undergo biopsy, adjusting for age and longitudinal prostate-specific antigen and digital rectal examination. Medication use, education, and marital status also influenced who underwent biopsy. Some risk factor estimates for prostate cancer varied substantially across cohorts. Black ( v other ethnicities) had odds ratios (ORs) that varied from 1.20 for SELECT (community screening standards, epidemiologic-like cohort) to 1.83 for PCPT (end-of-study biopsy supplemented with imputed end points). Statin use in SELECT provided an OR of 0.65 and statin use in in PCPT provided an OR of 0.99, a relative difference of 34%. Conclusion Among screened men enrolled in prostate cancer prevention trials, differences in risk factor estimates for prostate cancer likely underestimate the magnitude of bias found in other cohorts with varying screening and biopsy recommendations and acceptance. Risk factors for prostate cancer derived from epidemiologic studies not only may be erroneous but may lead to misdirected research efforts.


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