Estudo: uso do PSA para cancro próstata

https://www.urotoday.com/recent-abstracts/urologic-oncology/prostate-cancer/102618-twenty-year-risk-of-prostate-cancer-death-by-midlife-prostate-specific-antigen-and-a-panel-of-four-kallikrein-markers-in-a-large-population-based-cohort-of-healthy-men.html

Citando:
"A prespecified statistical model based on four kallikrein markers (commercially available as the 4Kscore) reclassified many men with modestly elevated PSA, to have a low long-term risk of prostate cancer death. Men with elevated PSA but low scores from the four-kallikrein panel can be monitored rather than being subject to biopsy.

Men with elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) are often referred for prostate biopsy. However, men with elevated PSA but low scores from the four-kallikrein panel can be monitored rather than being subject to biopsy."

Alternativa de biópsia à próstata com maior taxa de detecção

Evolução interessante uma vez que a biópsia tinha efeitos secundarios possíveis como disfunção eréctil e uma taxa de detecção correcta (de tumores agressivos que requerem atenção imediata) muito baixa:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-38665618
Citando:
"The biggest leap in diagnosing prostate cancer "in decades" has been made using new scanning equipment, say doctors and campaigners.
Using advanced MRI nearly doubles the number of aggressive tumours that are caught.
And the trial on 576 men, published in the Lancet, showed more than a quarter could be spared invasive biopsies, which can lead to severe side-effects.
The NHS is already reviewing whether the scans can be introduced widely.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in British men (...)"
"If men have high prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels in the blood, they go for a biopsy.
Twelve needles then take random samples from the whole of the prostate.
It can miss a cancer that is there, fail to spot whether it is aggressive, and cause side-effects including bleeding, serious infections and erectile dysfunction.
"Taking a random biopsy from the breast would not be accepted, but we accept that in prostate," said Dr Hashim Ahmed, a consultant and one of the researchers.
Around 100,000 to 120,000 men go through this every year in the UK."
(...)
"93% of aggressive cancers were detected by using the MRI scan to guide the biopsy compared with just 48% when the biopsy was done at random."

Os níveis de PSA e os exames e intervenções à próstata

Um relato em primeira-mão de uma história que começou com níveis de PSA elevados (testados por análises ao sangue):
http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/12751516


Citando:
"[I] had a PSA level of 16.  Now, PSA (prostate specific antigen, measured in nanograms per millilitre of blood) can give both false negatives and false positives.  Normal levels of PSA in the blood are between 0-2.5 ng/ml. Higher than normal levels, greater than 2.5, can be caused by cancer or by benign, non-cancerous conditions such as an enlarged prostate, prostate inflammation, infection, or trauma. But all elevated readings of PSA should be investigated."