Radio personality Don Imus has announced that he developed prostate cancer. Listen to his description of how his PSA has varied and gone up and down over the years. This video is just a heads-up for men in the older age group to get a regular PSA test as part of your annual health check-up. Here’s more information from our companion website, patientresource.net:
PSA is a widely used biological marker, or biomarker, of prostate cancer risk. A lot of research is currently being done to identify other biomarkers of risk that may enhance the predictive value of nomograms and improve a physician’s ability to predict capsular penetration and distant metastasis (spread) of prostate cancer as well as cancer recurrence after treatment. A nomogram, as defined by the National Cancer Institute, is a mathematical device or model that shows relationships between things. For example, a nomogram of height and weight measurements can be used to find the surface area of a person, without doing the math, to determine the right dose of chemotherapy. Nomograms of patient and disease characteristics can help predict the outcome of some kinds of cancer.
New approaches to risk assessment for prostate cancer are also emerging that combine biomarker testing, biopsy tissue analysis and clinical data to provide personalized risk assessments that could improve the accuracy of predicting patient outcomes from cancer treatments.