The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPTF) recommends that men age 55 to 65 consider prostate cancer screening based on their specific circumstances. The reason that the USPTF does not directly recommend testing for every man in this age group is that current prostate specific antigen (PSA) screening methods are notoriously unreliable. But things may be changing thanks to the emergence of new genetic tests that rely on more sophisticated biomarker detection and algorithmic analysis to assess prostate cancer risk. In addition to the urine testing products currently on the market, last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared the way for final approval of a new blood-based assay shown to be more accurate than traditional PSA tests. Problems with PSA Screening The current PSA test can detect high levels of the prostate-specific antigen protein in the blood. The problem is in interpreting the results. Stated simply, PSA is not a reliable biomarker. High levels of PSA could be a sign of not only prostate cancer but infection, inflammation or other disease. In some cases, high PSA is caused not by disease but just the common age-related condition of an enlarged prostate gland. But given the risks involved, […]