Funded by the Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund
PSA is a blood test used to check men for harmful prostate cancer (PCa). A man with high levels
of PSA may have harmful PCa, but if we catch it early, it is almost 100% curable. Men with high
PSA may also have harmless PCa or they may not have cancer at all. To diagnose harmful PCa,
doctors take biopsies of the prostate using painful needles. Fortunately, most of the men end up
having large prostates or harmless forms of PCa. This causes many men to suffer through the
biopsy and then worry about potentially having a harmful cancer. Some men with harmless PCa
will have surgery or radiation from fear, but can have bad side effects.
Prostate Health Index (PHI) is an improved version of PSA that better predicts which men have
harmful, PCa. Doctors use PHI to help men avoid prostate biopsies. Unfortunately, PHI was
never tested for accuracy in African American men (AAM). AAM have the highest chance of
dying from harmful PCa. We need to prove that the test works in AAM like it does in White
men. We will compare how well the test works for predicting harmful PCa in 300 African
American men in comparison to 100 White men that are having a prostate biopsy. If PHI works,
we will be able to detect harmful PCa earlier for African American men. This test will reduce
their chances of dying from the disease.
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