PSA Scores in Obese Men Should be Adjusted
According to a new study led by Duke Prostate Center researchers, — doctors may be missing cancers in obese men because the telltale blood marker (PSA) used to detect prostate cancer can be falsely interpreted as low in this population.
According to Stephen Freedland, M.D., a Duke urologist and senior researcher on the study:
“Obese men have more blood circulating throughout their bodies than normal weight men, and as a result, the concentration of prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, in the blood — the gold standard for detecting prostate cancer — can become diluted.
We’ve known for a while that obese men tend to have lower PSA scores than normal weight men, but our study really proposes a reason why this happens, and points to the need for an adjustment in the way we interpret PSA scores that will take body weight into account. If not, we may be missing a large number of cancers each year.”
The PSA (prostate specific antigen) test is the gold standard for detecting prostate cancer in men.
Because PSA in obese men are often diluted (thereby prostate cancer not earlier detected), prostate cancers in these men are more aggressive.
Find more details from Duke University Medical Center.
Tags: obese-men, prostate-cancer, PSA-(prostate-specific-antigen), PSA-testRelated Stories
POSTED IN: on cancer diagnostics, on prostate cancer
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