Jerry John Rawlings Mensah

Virginia Commonwealth University

Graduate Student

PLCO (Learn more about this study)

PLCO-1732

Nov 5, 2024

Prostate Cancer Screening using Machine Learning

Early detection and risk estimation of Prostate Cancer (PCa) is especially important for effective treatment and good clinical outcomes. Early screenings using the serum Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test are usually less invasive and cheaper than other PCa tests which involve biopsies, MRI, or rectal exams – that can be invasive, expensive, or both. Although PSA testing is very common, it is a controversial topic arising from the lack of clear guidelines on serum PSA threshold for diagnoses and treatment, as well as accuracy issues such as sensitivity and specificity that can lead to overdiagnosis or overtreatment. As a result, organizations such as the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommend against PSA screening for other measures such as shared decision-making between providers and patients, with consideration of individual patient risk factors including age, life expectancy, family history, and race/ ethnicity. This project will use machine learners that will combine the USPSTF measures with PSA, digital rectal exam screening results, and other important baseline clinical and epidemiologic variables to train and evaluate machine learning models to predict prostate cancer risk and incidence over 10-13 years.