Obesity Levels Affect Prostate Screenings

U.S. researchers have found that in cases with men whose body mass index was 25 or above, a lower PSA density calculation needed to be used.

This is important because the tendency for obese men to have lower PSA values and higher prostate volumes lead to a lower overall PSAD, said Dr. Mark Garzotto, of the Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute Garzotto.

We discovered that one set of rules apply to men with low to normal body mass index and another set of rules apply to men with high body mass index, Garzotto said.

This new risk factor beats all the prior predictors in a race and, importantly, it helps us provide appropriate care for the 66 percent of men in the United States who are overweight or obese, according to Garzotto.

One in four U.S. men, who receive prostate biopsies after positive screening tests for cancer, actually are diagnosed with the disease.

We needed a better understanding of how BMI affects prostate cancer diagnosis and what can be done about it, said Garzotto.

The findings were presented at the 2006 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Atlanta.