ANAHEIM, Calif.—Prostate cancers found as a result of PSA screening are less likely to exhibit extracapsular extension and positive surgical margins after radical prostatectomy than tumors found in a non-screened population, despite similar PSA levels, data show.

ANAHEIM, Calif.—Statins can significantly reduce PSA levels in healthy men, and the magnitude of this decline is proportional to the extent to which the drugs reduce cholesterol levels, according to researchers.

ANAHEIM, Calif.—Fifteen percent of older men managed with watchful waiting for low-risk prostate tumors detected by PSA screening will die from the malignancy in 10 years, despite a high death rate from competing causes, a study found.

An experimental blood test has detected prostate cancer so accurately that it could supplant PSA levels as a screening mechanism for the disease, according to researchers.

For some men with localized prostate cancer, active surveillance has emerged in recent years as a viable management option. Defined as rigorous monitoring with the option of initiating potentially curative therapy should disease progress, this approach generally has been considered for patients with early, indolent disease (T1c or T2a tumors, a Gleason score of no more than 6, and a PSA level not greater than 10 ng/mL).

PROSTATE BIOPSIES may be unwarranted in men aged 80 years and older and who have a PSA level of 30 ng/mL, according to investigators in the U.K.

Contrary to what is commonly thought, the risk of having a positive repeat prostate biopsy is no lower for men with a fluctuating PSA level than it is for those with a steady or steadily increasing PSA level.

ORLANDO—New findings presented here suggest clinicians should use a lower PSA velocity (PSAV) to recommend prostate biopsies in men who have PSA levels less than 4 ng/mL.

ORLANDO—A urine assay for prostate cancer gene 3 (PCA3) is superior to serum PSA tests for predicting outcomes of repeat prostate biopsy, data show.

The most widespread nondermatologic malignancy in men, prostate cancer afflicts one in six American males and kills one in 34. Growing public awareness, an aging population, and increased PSA screening has led to greater detection of early-stage disease. Among newly diagnosed cases, for example, the proportion with T3 or T4 disease fell from 19% to 4% between 1988 and 1998, and those with metastatic disease at presentation fell from 14% to 3%, according to a study by Peter Carroll, MD, and colleagues at the University of California in San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center (J Clin Oncol. 2005;23:8146-8151).