Model identifies low-risk prostate cancer

NEW YORK, Jan 19 (Reuters) An updated prognostic model can accurately identify prostate cancers that are unlikely to spread and do not require aggressive treatment, Dutch researchers report in The Journal of Urology.

''This model,'' lead investigator Dr. Ewout W Steyerberg told Reuters Health, ''may help to identify a subgroup of men who are most likely to have a rather indolent prostate cancer.'' Steyerberg of Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam and colleagues note that a variety of features, including the results of a standard blood test, called the prostate-specific antibody (PSA) test, and the number of cancer cells at biopsy have been incorporated into prognostic models.

The researchers tested one model in 247 patients with prostate cancer who were treated with surgical removal of the gland. Indolent cancers were cancers that had not spread outside of the prostate.

Overall, 49 per cent of the group had indolent cancer, a much higher percentage than the average predicted probability, which was around 20 percent. This means that by using the model many men could avoid aggressive treatments that will not improve their survival rate, but may lower their quality of life.

''Using this model,'' Steyerberg concluded, ''may contribute to reducing the overtreatment of men with prostate cancer.'' Reuters SSC GC0932