Health: Study Finds Needless Prostate Biopsies

The researchers, writing in the March 16 issue of The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, concluded that using P.S.A. velocity for prostate cancer detection is ineffective, that it leads to unnecessary biopsies and that references to it should be removed from professional guidelines and policy statements.

But at this point, he is firmly against biopsies on the basis of velocity alone. If your P.S.A. is in the normal range, you shouldn't get a biopsy, he said. Changes or spikes in P.S.A. are not something to worry about if your P.S.A. is still normal.

For more, see Study Finds Needless Prostate Biopsies by Nicholas Bakalar, February 27, 2011 at NYTimes.com.