U.S. National Library of MedicineNational Institutes of Health
Skip navigation
MedlinePlus Trusted Health Information for You MedlinePlus Trusted Health Information for You MedlinePlus Trusted Health Information for You
Contact Us FAQs Site Map About MedelinePlus
español

Reuters Health Information Logo

Some risk seen with prostate biopsy

Printer-friendly version Printer-friendly version

Reuters Health

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Among men who have undergone a prostate biopsy, there is a small increase in death rates within the following 120 days, researchers report.

They caution, however, that further studies are needed to verify this association, and to figure out what might be causing it.

The finding stems from a study of 22,175 men who underwent prostate biopsy from 1989 to 2000, who were compared with a "control" group of 1778 similar men who did not have a biopsy.

Overall, 1.3 percent of the biopsy group died during the 120 days after the procedures, while only 0.3 percent of the control group died within a similar period, Dr. Pierre I. Karakiewicz, from the University of Montreal, and colleagues report in the International Journal of Cancer.

Age and other factors affected the odds of dying. For example, men younger than 61 years had a mortality rate of 0.2 percent, compared with 2.5 percent for men over 75 years. Among men with multiple medical conditions, the mortality rate was 2.2 percent, but it was only 0.7 percent for otherwise healthy men.

The findings suggest that older and less healthy men should be carefully prescreened to make sure the benefits of a prostate biopsy outweigh the risks, the researchers advise.

SOPURCE: International Journal of Cancer, August 1, 2008.


Reuters Health

Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

Related News:
More News on this Date

Related MedlinePlus Pages: