Technologies

Invention Description:

The subject invention uses availablerepeat prostate-specific antigen (PSA) measures from the NCI-funded Prostate Lung Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (PLCO) to predict subsequent diagnosis of clinically significant prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in the United States and the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men. It is generally a lower-risk cancer for which the treatment is often worse than the disease. The increased detection of low-risk prostate cancer based on PSA screenings is the foundation of the controversy that has led to recommendations against screening. Essentially, the current problems can be summarized as either over-treatment of indolent, low-risk disease that if left untreated has little chance of harming the patient but whose treatment can cause great harm ranging from infections to incontinence; or under-treating virulent, high-risk disease which is likely to be fatal.This technology is an effective way to detect life-threatening prostate cancer and distinguish it from other conditions associated with elevated PSA.