"A rising PSA level isnt such a good predictor of prostate cancer after all and can lead to many unnecessary biopsies says a large new study.  Most men over  get PSA blood tests but theyre hugely problematic. Too much PSA or prostatespecific antigen only sometimes signals prostate cancer is brewing  it also can mean a benign enlarged prostate or an infection. And screening often detects small tumors that will prove too slowgrowing to be deadly. Yet theres no sure way to tell in advance who needs aggressive therapy.  On the other hand some men have cancer despite a normal PSA count of  or below. So for PSAs that are rising yet still in the normal range some guidelines urge doctors to consider a biopsy.  How quickly the PSA number rises is something that patients and doctors worry a lot about said Dr. Andrew Vickers of Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center. Men show up here with a PSA of  and we say Why are you here And they say Well I used to be a  and my doctors worried. Am I going to die  So SloanKettering researchers studied whether considering PSA velocity adds value to the biopsyornot decision in those otherwise lowrisk men  and concluded it doesnt.  This is a really important study said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society who wasnt part of the research. A lot of doctors are going to stop looking at a PSA rise of  and ordering biopsies. Vickers team tracked  men whod taken part in a huge prostate cancer prevention study and whod received a biopsy at the studys end regardless of their PSA level.  Just having a rising PSA  if nothing else was considered  was associated with a slightly higher risk of having cancer although not the more worrisome aggressive kind. But the PSA level alone not its rise was a much better predictor of a tumor reported Vickers a statistician who specializes in prostate cancer.  Focusing on PSAs rise instead triggered many more biopsies with close to  in  men who would get one concluded the study published Thursday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.  That compares with  in  men who are biopsied for a high PSA level alone noted Dr. Grace LuYao of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in an accompanying editorial.  Theres an important public health message here which is for men not to worry about changes in their PSA if their overall PSA level is low Vickers said."