The time it takes for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels to double can help predict the clinical outcome of patients with prostate cancer who have been treated with combined radiation and hormone therapy, researchers report in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, according to Reuters. "Since patients with PSA recurrences after treatment for prostate cancer have significant variability in subsequent clinical outcomes, other parameters such as PSA kinetics have been used to better predict those patients who may develop symptomatic recurrences or decreased survival," lead investigator Dr. Andrew K. Lee told Reuters Health. "Brief PSA doubling time," he continued, "has been shown to be significant for predicting clinically apparent recurrences." In the current study, Lee and colleagues at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston reviewed data on 621 men with prostate cancer that had not spread to other areas of the body. Overall, 62 men experienced some degree of clinical failure and 22 had true clinical failure. --more 2318 Local Time 2018 GMT
