Jan
01
2005

PSA Screening For Prostate Cancer Not Obsolete

By | Cancer, Men's Health, Prevention

Like with any test there are false positive results, and the blood test called PSA (short for Prostate Specific Antigen) has received some criticism as a result. Negative comments likening it to “Shooting flies with a bazooka” have been voiced, and yet, statistics on the mortality due to prostate cancer tell a different story.

In recent years the mortality rate in North America is down by 25%, and part of it is due to PSA. Currently there is no more effective testing in place, so the alternative is not attractive. It is like going back to the bad old times, where men where diagnosed only, once the prostate cancer was advanced, had formed metastases, and hopes for a cure were remote. There are promising new tests under development which at one point in time will replace the PSA, but for now it’s still the best test available. The only other way to find prostate cancer is by doing a biopsy.

PSA Screening For Prostate Cancer Not Obsolete

PSA Screening For Prostate Cancer Not Obsolete

More info on prostate cancer prevention: http://nethealthbook.com/cancer-overview/prostate-cancer/prostate-cancer-prevention/

Reference: National Review Of Medicine, December 15, 2004, page 22

Last edited October 27, 2014

Dec
01
2003

New Tumor Marker For Prostate Cancer Detected

By | Cancer, Prevention

According to an upcoming article in the December 15th issue of Cancer (Cancer 2003;98) a research group from the Harvard Medical School, Boston, under Dr. Brian Liu describes a micro-dissection method where prostatic tissue from 17 suspected cancer patients were examined with a spectroscopic method for a new protein marker, the cellular protein PCa-24). This was found to be positive in 16 of the 17 samples. In contrast, 12 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (also known as BPH or “benign prostatic hypertrophy”) showed no trace of this prostate cancer specific protein. As this protein is located inside the prostate cancer cell (it is a cellular protein), one has to obtain a tissue sample through a prostate biopsy. The group under Dr. Liu achieved this through laser capture micro-dissection  Proteomics, which is the method that was used to characterize the prostate cancer specific protein (PCa-24), is briefly discussed under this link, but it is not necessary to understand all of the ramifications of these methods. What is important regarding the work by the group under Dr. Liu is to note that there is now a very reliable method available to distinguish between the harmless BPH condition and the deadly prostate cancer condition, which requires invasive therapy such as a radical prostatectomy. Both of these conditions can produce high prostate specific antigen (PSA) that can be detected in the blood. Dr. Liu’s group plans to develop antibodies to the PCa-24 protein so that eventually there will be a more specific blood test available that could be used in patients with high PSA levels to distinguish between benign and cancerous prostate conditions. In the future the physician might use the cheaper PSA screening test to screen for prostate abnormalities and use the more expensive antibody test against the PCa-24 protein that is being developed to determine whether or not prostate cancer might be the underlying cause.

New Tumor Marker For Prostate Cancer Detected

New Tumor Marker For Prostate Cancer Detected

Dr. Liu also wants to develop a high resolution body scan where in the case of metastatic prostate cancer the cancer cells would be located exactly where they are with a new imaging technique. These would have a high probability of being specific for prostate cancer, as the antibodies would be highly specific against the prostate cancer protein. Here is a link to the Net Health Book’s chapter on prostate cancer.

Last edited December 9, 2012