PCA3 Materials & News

10/12/2010

Prostate Cancer gene 3 (PCA3): Development and internal validation of a novel biopsy nomogram

Press release

This press release discusses the recently published study “Prostate Cancer Gene 3 (PCA3): Development and Internal Validation of a Novel Biopsy Nomogram.” by Chun FK, et al¹
This study in 809 men referred for a first or repeat prostate biopsy evaluated a PCA3-based nomogram for the detection of prostate cancer (PCa). The combination of PCA3 with established PCa-risk factors, such as prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels or digital rectal examination (DRE) findings, increased the accuracy of the nomogram with 2-5%
This PCA3-based nomogram may help clinicians in deciding whether further prostatic evaluation is necessary for their patients
The results of the study also confirm that PCA3 is one of the novel markers alleviating PSA’s dilemma of low specificity
Further large scale studies are needed to confirm these findings, and to evaluate PCA3 cut-offs in different biopsy settings (e.g. first vs. repeat biopsy) or in further sub-stratification (e.g. PSA cut-off levels of 0-2.5 ng/mL, vs. 2.6-4 ng/mL)

1) Chun FK, et al.Prostate Cancer Gene 3 (PCA3): Development and Internal Validation of a Novel Biopsy Nomogram. Eur Urol 2009;56:659-67