The Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial(PCPT)

The Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) prostate cancer risk calculator was the first online prostate cancer risk assessment tool to allow a man to assess his risk for prostate cancer in consultation with his primary care physician.
This tool was developed by Thompson et al., based on data developed from 5,519 men in the placebo group of the PCPT trial who went on to have a biopsy after final completion of the therapy stage of the trial.
In addition to PSA and DRE results, the nomogram is based on knowledge of the following patient characteristics: any prior biopsy data, age, family history of prostate cancer, and ethnicity.
At this time, this nomogram is considered to be the “standard” nomogram for assessment of risk for prostate cancer. The more recent Sunnybrook nomogram is based on additional data, but has yet to be validated.
A “plug and play” version of the PCPT prostate cancer risk calculator is available on the National Cancer Institute web site. If you want to use the calculator, all you need to do is enter the following data:
Your age
Your prostate specific antigen (PSA) level
Your ethnic background
Your family history of prostate cancer
Whether your have a positive or negative digital rectal exam result
Whether you have had a prior negative prostate biopsy
To give you an idea of how this calculator works, here are the data for its use for a man who seems to be a lot like the current writer:
Age: 61 years
PSA level: 1.2 ng/ml
Ethnic background: Caucasian
Family history of prostate cancer: None
Positive or negative DRE result: Negative
Prior negative prostate biopsy: None
When these data are inserted into the PCPT calulator, the results for this man are:
Estimated risk of biopsy-detectable prostate cancer: 16 percent
95 percent confidence interval for this prediction: 15-17 percent
Estimated risk of biopsy-detectable high grade prostate cancer: 2 percent
95 percent confidence interval for this prediction: 1.9-2.1 percent
Content on this page last reviewed and updated December 31, 2008.
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