A single blood test at age 60 accurately predicts the risk of a
man dying from prostate cancer in the next 25 years, a new study
suggests. The blood test, already widely used for prostate
cancer screening, detects levels of a protein called prostate-
specific antigen, or PSA. Some health-care providers say routine
screening using PSA tests could lead to overtreatment and
overdiagnosis of slow-growing prostate cancers that may never
affect a person during his lifetime. A single PSA test done at
age 60 has an advantage over regular screenings because the
potential for overdiagnosis is lower. The age-60 test could
predict who would need to come back for routine screening and
who wouldn't, the researchers said. "What we found … was a new
way of using an old test," study researchers Andrew Vickers and
Dr. Hans Lilja, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New
York, said in a statement. In the study, blood samples taken at
age 60 from 1,167 men in Sweden were analyzed, and the men were
tracked until they reach