Study says obesity may hinder prostate cancer screening's accuracy

ATLANTA (AP) _ A study released today says a man's weight may affect the accuracy of a common test to detect prostate cancer. <br/><br/>That's prompted researchers to warn that doctors could be

Monday, January 24th 2005, 9:48 am

By: News On 6

ATLANTA (AP) _ A study released today says a man's weight may affect the accuracy of a common test to detect prostate cancer.

That's prompted researchers to warn that doctors could be missing the dangerous cancer in obese men.

Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio studied 28-hundred men without prostate cancer between 2001 and 2004.

In the study released online today in the journal Cancer, they reported finding that the more obese the men were, the lower their levels of prostate-specific antigen or P-S-A.

A PSA of four or lower usually means no cancer.

Previous studies have shown that prostate cancer is more aggressive in obese men than in men of average weight.

The researchers wanted to see if the cancer's detection was somehow being delayed in obese men.

The Texas study found that the most morbidly obese men had about a third lower PSA levels than men of normal weight.