ALEXANDRIA, VA, United States (UPI) — A protein in men can determine if they are likely to have a low or high risk of surviving prostate cancer, a new study finds.
The protein is prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, which is made by the prostate gland.
If men with prostate cancer have a low PSA level after drug therapy, they are more likely to survive the cancer than men with high PSA levels, a research team at the University of Michigan found.
Prostate-cancer patients with low PSA levels after androgen-deprivation therapy, which blocks male hormones, had only a 75 percent greater chance of surviving than men with higher PSA levels, reported the study, published in the Aug. 20 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Patients with undetectable PSA levels had an 80 percent chance.
The median survival was 13 months for high-PSA patients; 44 months for low-PSA patients; and 75 months for patients with nearly undetectable PSA levels; the study said.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
Source: Monster and Critics
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What are the symtoms for a patient which had his protate removed and after a few years the cancer came back? And after radiation, how are the pains detected?