Obesity May Be Factor in Prostate Test, Study Says
From Times Wire Services
A new study suggests a man’s weight may affect the accuracy of a common test to detect prostate cancer, leading researchers to warn that doctors could be missing the cancer in obese men.
Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio studied 2,779 men without prostate cancer between 2001 and 2004. In the study to be released online today in the journal Cancer, they reported finding that the more obese, the lower the levels of prostate-specific antigen, or PSA.
The Texas study found that the most morbidly obese men had about 30% lower PSA levels than men of normal weight.
