| Prostate Cancer Can be Missed in Obese Men
(Ivanhoe News wire) Being overweight can have an impact on the results of a common test for prostate cancer. A measurement of prostate specific antigen (PSA) is often the way prostate cancer is diagnosed. A high level of PSA indicates cancer. But obese men have lower PSA levels and new research says its because the large volumes of plasma associated with being overweight. Several theories have been presented about why obese men have lower PSA levels. Researchers from the U.S. and Canada examined a large cohort of men with prostate cancer and looked at the relation between body-mass index (BMI), PSA measurements, and plasma volume. They included more than 13,700 men from a 16 year time period. .
Prostate exam fees not sexist, human rights tribunal rules
B.C. men will have to continue to pay for prostate cancer screening. The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has rejected a claim by Laurence Armstrong, a Victoria lawyer, that men face discrimination in having to pay for prostate specific antigen tests, while women get mammograms and Pap smears for free. The decision was published Thursday. Armstrong told CBC News that he was annoyed at having to pay $30 for every PSA test recommended by his doctor. "I'd be sitting in the lab waiting room watching the women go in for mammographies, not paying," said Armstrong, who decided to take the matter to the human rights tribunal, which heard the case in 2006. Test's effectiveness questioned After considering several expert opinions, tribunal member Kurt Neuenfeldt dismissed the claim, citing questions about the effectiveness of the PSA test as a general method of screening for prostate cancer.
DNA test may help trace prostate cancer
The study, "Cumulative Association of Five Genetic Variants with Prostate Cancer," was presented in the January 17 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. It was based on genetic analyses of some 4,800 Swedish men, of whom 3,000 had prostate cancer and 1,800 had no such diagnosis. Every year some 10,000 Swedish men are diagnosed with prostate cancer, and in Stockholm alone some 150,000 PSA tests are made each year. .
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