On Tuesday this week, Dr. James L. Mohler of Roswell Park Cancer Institute participated in an hour-long discussion on key issues related to the diagnosis and management of early stage prostate cancer. For those who where unable to listen in live, the entire conversation was recorded and can now be accessed on the CureTalk web site.
Dr. Mohler is the chairman of the prostate cancer guidelines panel for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). He provided us with a brief introduction to some of the key, recent updates to these guidelines. He then focused on issues surrounding newer forms of test that can be used in the precise detection and prognosis of early stage forms of prostate cancer, such as multi-parametric MRI imaging, new genetic and genomic tests, and other new forms of test such as the Prostate Health Index (phi) and the 4KScore.
Dr. Mohler was at pains to point out that, given what we know today about low-risk prostate cancer, a key goal is the avoidance of unnecessary treatment of men with forms of prostate cancer that are highly unlikely to present a serious risk for men during their lifetime — by avoiding unnecessary biopsies and diagnosis in men at very low risk and by avoiding unnecessary treatment in men diagnosed with low-risk and very low-risk disease. Differentiating between cancers of these types and cancers that present with aggressive features that need treatment is a key issue in the evolution of the management of prostate cancer.
Filed under: Diagnosis, Management, Risk | Tagged: Diagnosis, Management, new, tests |
THE "NEW" PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK 
What about blood in your urine? I pee blood once in about a week.
Dear Marvin:
Having signs of blood in one’s urine is a potential indicator of risk for several different conditions, the most common of which is some type of urinary tract infection. This can be an indicator of risk for prostate cancer, but that would not be the most common reason at all.
If you are seeing signs of blood in your urine on a weekly basis, you really need to talk with your primary care physician about this and get appropriate urine samples evaluated.