Study: Obesity might hinder prostrate screen

ATLANTA – 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 dangerous cancer in obese men.

Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio studied 2,779 men without prostate cancer between 2001-04.

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 PSA. A PSA of 4.0 or lower usually means no cancer.

Previous studies have shown 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 delayed in obese men.