Should prostate specific antigen be adjusted for body mass index?
December 11th, 2009 Posted in prostate cancerAccording to a report by Dr. Stacy Loeb and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute on Aging, the impact of body mass index (BMI) on PSA levels is small.
Several studies have suggested a correlation between increased BMI and more aggressive pathological features and worse outcomes. One issue is that overweight and obese men have a larger circulating plasma volume and secondary to hemodilution may have an artificially lower serum PSA. Another possibility is that obesity affects PSA by these men having lower testosterone levels.
This study evaluated the association between BMI and PSA in men with and without prostate cancer using the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) database. Its conclusion appears in the December, 2009 online edition of the Journal of Urology.