
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 8, 1995                   TAG: 9511080063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                  LENGTH: Medium

MORE CASES OF PROSTATE CANCER SEEN

BETTER SCREENING may be behind the increase, say researchers, meaning more cases are caught earlier.

Diagnosed cases of prostate cancer are on the rise - not necessarily because of any decline in the health of American men, but because of a new blood test that can detect the disease early on, researchers say.

The findings should be reassuring to men, said Dr. Steven J. Jacobsen, who reported the findings in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

The increase in diagnosed cases of prostate cancer ``means it's probably not something out in the environment, something that we're doing lifestyle-wise. It's probably just due to the testing,'' he said. ``We're detecting cases that had not previously come to medical attention.''

The new PSA, or prostate-specific antigen, test can detect cancers that would otherwise have gone undiagnosed.

The test, introduced in 1987 but not approved for screening until 1994, detects a prostate-produced protein. Elevated levels are a possible indicator of cancer, though a follow-up ultrasound and biopsy are used to make a definitive diagnosis.

Annual PSA screening for prostate cancer - the nation's second-leading cancer killer of men - is now recommended for men 50 and older.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., examined the incidence of prostate cancer several years before and after the test was introduced and found a more than three-fold increase between 1983 and 1992.

Led by Jacobsen, an epidemiologist, they looked at 511 cases diagnosed in those nine years in Olmsted County, Minn., home of the Mayo Clinic.

The age-adjusted incidence of prostate cancer increased from 64 per 100,000 people in 1983 to 215 per 100,000 in 1992.

The largest increase occurred in 1988, when there was a doubling from 1987, the year PSA testing was introduced. Among men 70 and older, the incidence declined after 1990, indicating that PSA testing was helping diagnose patients at a younger age, the researchers said.

by CNB