A study from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute revealed PSA velocity is not sufficient grounds for biopsy. Some current guidelines suggest that PSA velocity…a rapid change in the PSA level from test to test (greater than 0.35 ng/ml per year)…may indicate the onset of prostate cancer, requiring a biopsy to confirm. However, this study showed that doing such biopsies would lead to only a “very small increase” in predictive accuracy and would lead to a large number of unnecessary procedures.

For more information on preventing prostate cancer, see Chapter 2 or for treatment of prostate cancer, see Chapter 3k (Cancer) in the Boom or Bust book.