Liquid Diagnostics and Prostate Cancer
E. David Crawford, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Grand Rounds in Urology and Professor of Urology at the University of California, San Diego, discusses how to use liquid diagnostics in combination with PSA testing to reduce unnecessary prostate biopsies. Dr. Crawford explains that while PSA is a good, inexpensive test of the relative risk of prostate cancer, better guidance is needed for application, especially because 90% of PSA tests are ordered by general practitioners rather than specialists. He suggests that medical practitioners consider a PSA of >1.5 to 4 as the danger zone where further evaluation is indicated. These patients should not be immediately sent for a prostate biopsy, but should instead be evaluated for benign prostatic hyperplasia and then for prostate cancer risk using liquid diagnostics. Dr. Crawford recommends following a diagnostic pathway, like the one at pcmarkers.com, to determine which patients need treatment.
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