Treatment for Localized Prostate Cancer

A 2005 JAMA study suggested that PSA velocity (PSAV) may help doctors decide which patients should receive androgen suppression drugs along with radiation therapy. PSAV lets doctors calculate how quickly a patient’s PSA level has risen. Researchers found that men who had at least a 2.0 ng/mL increase in PSA levels during the year before their cancer diagnosis had a high risk of dying after external beam radiation therapy, even though they had low-grade prostate cancer. The study suggests that men with this particular PSAV history should consider combining radiation therapy with androgen suppression drugs.