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Prostate tumor size predicts risk of recurrence NEW YORK, Sep 18 (Reuters Health) - The size of a prostate tumor is a good indicator of whether cancer will return after surgery, according to results of a study. Those men who had tumors that made up about 11% of prostate tissue had no recurrence of their cancer while those whose cancer returned had tumors that made up about 24% of their prostate tissue. Overall, 8% of the nearly 600 men experienced a cancer recurrence in the 6 months to 3 years after undergoing surgical removal of the prostate, researchers report in the September 15th issue of the journal Cancer. For each 5% increase in tumor size, the risk of recurrence increased by 11%, the findings indicate. Doctors use several measures to predict the odds of a cancer recurrence, including blood levels of PSA, which is a protein related to prostate cancer, and the Gleason grade, which evaluates a tumor's aggressiveness based on cellular characteristics. However, the process of measuring tumor size is "quite laborious" and is not suited for routine testing, study co-author Dr. Peter A. Humphrey, of Washington University Medical Center in St. Louis, Missouri, explained in an interview. In the study, a technique was used to measure tumors that can be easily performed in any hospital lab, which may help doctors and patients decide whether any additional treatment is needed after cancer surgery, Humphrey told Reuters Health. The so-called visual inspection of the tumor involves viewing a tissue sample through a microscope to estimate the percentage of tumor cells in prostate tissue. "The size of the tumor in the prostate gland is an important factor to consider," Humphrey said. This information is another factor that patients and their doctors can use in trying to make decisions about therapy, he noted. The good news is that hospitals are already equipped to perform the measurements. In fact, samples of prostate tissue are already used to determine the grade and stage of cancer, the researcher pointed out. "The technique itself is not new," but the application to prostate cancer is, Humphrey stated. Tumor size is already used to predict the recurrence odds of several other types of cancer, including breast cancer, he added. |
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