Dr. Stacy Loeb on Screening Considerations in Prostate Cancer

​Stacy Loeb, MD, assistant professor of urology and population health at New York University (NYU) Langone Medical Center, discusses how prostate cancer screening has evolved and what is on the horizon.

Screening has been shown to have significant benefits, including reducing metastatic prostate cancer and prostate cancer deaths, says Loeb. However, it hasn’t always been used correctly, she says.

Total PSA was historically used alone to determine if patients should undergo biopsy. However, it is now recognized that PSA should be viewed as part of a continuum of prostate cancer risk, says Loeb. There are many other factors such as family history and previously biopsy history that should be taken into account when determining if patients should undergo screening.

Patient selection is really important and screening efforts should be focused on men with a long life expectancy, she says.

There are also new tests that are more specific than PSA including the 4K score and the Prostate Health Index tests.