Drugs/Therapy

New Study Reveals Latest Test to Determine Recurring Prostate Cancer

By Joie M Gahum | Update Date: Feb 04, 2017 10:05 AM EST

There is now a new way in predicting if a man will have a recurring prostate cancer or if he will die even after being treated. The latest blood test called a PSA will determine if the prostate cancer that has been already treated will recur and spread.

The blood test as described by NBC News will determine if the PSA levels are still low or high in a patient. If the levels are not low enough, the prostate cancer will most likely recur and will come back and spread. The research was conducted through a collaboration between Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard Medical School.

The specific test will look for prostate specific antigens, a soft tissue that is made up of prostate cells. A high PSA level suggests that the prostate cells are still growing. PSA levels that fail to fall to 0.5 nanograms per ml or lower is considered as dangerous.

However, the test does not completely indicate that the prostate cancer is indeed coming back. Such PSA levels can also be caused by the inflammation of the prostate or because of the enlargement of the prostate which is very common to aging men.

Test results allow doctors to act faster in the even that a patient has a possibility of acquiring their prostate cancer back. Enrolling patients to such treatments may help in making their incurable prostate cancer, curable.

WebMD reveals that prostate cancer is very common. In the US alone, 240,000 men suffer from the disease and 30,000 die from the disease every year.

Although prostate cancer is not the main cause of death in men, the number of occurrences are already increasing and making men at risk of dying early.

The particular study involved 157 men that have already been treated for prostate cancer. They were observed for 16 years in average.  Most of the men, around 70 percent died during the 16-year period.

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