Prostate-specific antigen velocity (PSAV): a practical role for PSA?
BACKGROUND
Prostate cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Australian men. Early detection and treatment are critical to patient outcome, but detection is often difficult because of the limited accuracy of available tests. This paper assesses whether the use of prostate specific antigen kinetics has a practical use in the contemporary urological setting.


METHODS
A Medline literature review was performed examining related articles on the commonly available tests for prostate cancer, what they mean, their limited accuracy in cancer detection, and how this accuracy can be improved.


CONCLUSIONS
Detection of significant organ-confined prostate cancer should be the goal of general practitioners and urologists alike. Prostate-specific antigen and digital rectal examination are commonly used but lack specificity and sensitivity, especially for small organ-confined cancers. The additional use of prostate-specific antigen velocity may enhance the specificity and sensitivity of detection.
Thanigasalam
Ruban
R
Department of Urology, Port Macquarie Base Hospital & Rural Clinical School, The University of New South Wales, Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia. rubanoz@yahoo.com.au
Mancuso
Pascal
P
Tsao
Kim
K
Rashid
Prem
P
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D051517:Digital Rectal Examination / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen