A UCSF study urges transgender women and doctors to interpret standard prostate cancer screenings with caution.
Transgender women retain their prostate during their development, which therefore always exposes this organ to the risk of cancer.
“Patients and clinicians should be aware that PSA (prostate-specific antigen) values in transgender women on estrogen should be interpreted with caution because they are different from those in cisgender men,” said Farnoosh Nik-Ahd, PhD, author of the research cited at the beginning of the article.
Prostate cancer: there is no specific screening for transgender women
His team actually found that transgender women obtained results 50 times lower than usual PSA dosages. Yet, at present, there is no specific PSA range for transgender women.
“In transgender women, it is essential not to lose sight of the long-term cancer risks in retained organs,” said Matthew R. Cooperberg, co-author of the research and professor of urology.
“We are only just beginning to understand how estrogen and related treatments modulate prostate cancer risk and how to interpret PSA values in this population. The goal of our research is to be able to develop a rational, evidence-based screening policy for this population,” he added.
How to get screened for prostate cancer?
Two examinations are now possible in France to detect prostate cancer. The rectal examination, which allows the doctor to check the volume, consistency and texture of the surface of the prostate, or the PSA dosage, which allows via a blood test to measure the level of a protein naturally produced by the prostate.
Prostate cancer is a disease that develops from initially normal cells that transform and multiply in an anarchic manner, until they form a mass called a malignant tumor. “The majority of prostate cancers are adenocarcinomas,” specifies the National Cancer Institute.
With 59,885 new cases diagnosed in France in 2018, prostate cancer is the most common in our country. It is very rare before the age of 50 and its incidence gradually increases with age.
