prostate-report.org

Re-validation of prostate cancer risk calculator in contemporary patients

Statistical models such as the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial risk calculator have been developed to estimate the cancer risk in an individual and help determine indications for biopsy. It should be remembered that the current calculator was developed using data from men enrolled into the PCPT trial between 1993 and 1997. 

A new research at Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio. aimed to “re-validate” the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT)-based prostate cancer risk calculator sing data from a large, contemporary cohort of patients sampled by extended biopsy schemes (3,482 men who had a total of 4,515 prostate biopsies).

Research revealed that multivariate analysis of the predictive ability of various clinical factors revealed that race and the number of biopsy cores did not predict overall or high grade cancer at biopsy. Prior negative biopsy, patient age and free prostate specific antigen were significantly associated with prediction error for overall and high grade cancer. Race and family history had a significant association with prediction error only for high grade disease.

Study results suggest that the current calculator remains predictive but does not maintain initial accuracy in contemporary patients sampled by more extensive biopsy schemes. Data suggest that the predictive ability of the calculator in current clinical practice may be improved by modeling contemporary data and/or incorporating additional prognostic variables