PSAs Predict Long-Term Mortality for Metastatic Prostate Cancer

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PSAs Predict Long-Term Mortality for Metastatic Prostate Cancer

By Jeff Minerd, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today

Reviewed by Jasmer, MD; Assistant Professor of Medicine,

University of California, San Francisco

August 25, 2006

MedPage Today Action Points

* Explain to patients who ask that these study results suggest that

men who are unlikely to do well with standard androgen deprivation

therapy can be identified long before they develop overt androgen

independence, thereby providing a window of opportunity to try other

therapies

Additional Prostate Cancer Coverage

Review

SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 25 -- For men with newly diagnosed metastatic prostate

cancer treated with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), PSA levels at

seven months seem to predict long-term survival or early failure.

Those whose PSAs fell to below 4 ng/dL while undergoing androgen

deprivation therapy had about one-third the mortality risk, of men

whose levels were higher, said Maha Hussain, M.D., of the University of

Michigan in Ann Arbor, reporting for the Southwestern Oncology Group

(SWOG).

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Urology/ProstateCancer/tb/4001