Press Release: High PSA Velocity Linked With Low Survival Rates

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The rate at which prostate-specific antigen levels change may help identify men with life-threatening prostate cancer, according to a study in the November 1 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test is often used to screen for prostate cancer, but results often lead to treating cancers that would never have become life threatening, called overdiagnosis. Researchers are interested in finding a way to improve the test and avoid unnecessary overtreatment. Some studies have suggested that PSA velocity, the rate that PSA increases or decreases, is higher in men with life threatening prostate cancer than men without the disease.

H. Ballentine Carter, M.D., of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md., and colleagues assessed the PSA velocity of 104 men diagnosed with prostate cancer who had not died from the disease, 20 men who died of prostate cancer, and 856 without prostate cancer. Subjects were participants in the Balitmore Longitudinal Study of Aging.