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October 15, 2002
Good news for men at risk of getting prostate cancer.
A new study says a simple blood test can diagnose the cancer,
saving patients from unnecessary and invasive tests.
Typically, a man's PSA level is a possible indicator of the
disease.
Even then, doctors perform biopsies to see if the patient
actually has prostate cancer.
"It's sort of an unsettling thing when you have to tell
a patient, 'well, we don't think you have cancer but we can't
really tell you that for sure,'" said cancer researcher
Dr. David Ornstein.
That may
soon change.
The technology has proven successful in diagnosing ovarian
cancer.
And, researchers say initial studies show it is 95 percent
accurate in detecting prostate cancer.
The study is published in the Journal of the National
Cancer Institute.
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