PSA Test Might Help Guide Surveillance from MedPage Today

By Charles Bankhead, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

An index derived from three forms of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) may identify low-risk prostate cancers that eventually will require treatment, results of a clinical study suggest.

Men whose tumors eventually developed unfavorable characteristics had significantly higher mean prostate health index (PHI) values compared with men whose tumors remained low risk (37 versus 30, P=0.03), Robert W. Veltri, PhD, of Johns Hopkins, and colleagues reported here at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting.

The PHI is a composite score derived from measurement of total PSA, free PSA, and pro-PSA.

Use of the index alone or in combination with biopsy specimens demonstrated about 70% accuracy for predicting which tumors would develop unfavorable characteristics, according to the researchers.
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