Diagnosing Prostate Cancer

NEW YORK, Ny. (WUSA)-- When a patient is diagnosed with prostate cancer, it's important for doctors to know how advanced and how aggressive the disease is. New research may help doctors better diagnose and treat prostate cancer.

The right treatment for prostate cancer often depends on how aggressive the disease is. Dr. Ronal Ennis from St. Lukes Roosevelt Hospital says, "We're looking for tools to do better at predicting in advance how it's going to behave and so we can tailor the treatment better."

Testing for chemicals called metabolites may help. Researchers at the University of Michigan say they found that as prostate cancer develops, the levels of one of these chemicals increased. It was found in both tumor cells and urine samples. Dr. Ennis says, "This potentially could be used to help us detect prostate cancer and measure how advanced it is."

The current test for prostate cancer, called P.S.A., often indicates cancer where there is none. Robert Caliguire had to have several biopsies before he was diagnosed with cancer. Robert says, "I had three or four biopsies in the course of three to four years."

Caliguire is one of 200,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer in the US each year. The 81-year-old wasted no time getting treatment. He says, "We realized that now it was time to do something."

Doctors say it will likely take years before this research can be put to practical use. Caliguire hopes it may help someone else avoid some of the difficulties that he has faced.