根據研究人員的說法，在接受明確的前列腺癌治療之后，出現生化失敗而沒有癥狀的患者，在前列腺特異性抗原(PSA)小于5ng/ml的時候，影像學檢查的價值很小。

這個結論是由美國Cleveland門診部(Cleveland, OH, USA; www.clevelandclinic.org)的研究團隊得出的，在2007年2月晚些時候在美國Kissimmee(FL, USA)舉行的美國臨床腫瘤學會(ASCO)前列腺研討會上進行了報道，這些結論來自“前列腺戰略泌尿系統研究計劃(CaPSURE)”收集的數據，這是一項包括13,000例患者的數據庫。CaPSURE數據庫是美國觀察注冊處的男性活檢標本確證疾病縱向數據。

Cleveland血液學和醫學腫瘤學研究員Toni Choueiri醫生指出：患者PSA水平低于5ng/ml其影像學檢查出現陰性結果的可能性，要比那些生化失敗而且PSA水平大于或者等于5ng/ml患者高出9倍。
 
Prostate Imaging Not Recommended for Men with Low PSA Levels
 
After definitive prostate cancer therapy, there is little value in imaging studies when patients with biochemical failure are asymptomatic and have prostate-specific assay (PSA) levels less than 5 ng/ml, according to researchers.

This conclusion, reported by a Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, OH, USA; www.clevelandclinic.org) team of investigators at a prostate cancer symposium at American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) held in Kissimmee (FL, USA) in late February 2007, emerged from data gathered from the Cancer of the Prostate Strategic Urologic Research Endeavor (CaPSURE), a 13,000-patient database. The CaPSURE database is a U.S. observational registry with longitudinal data on men with biopsy-proven disease.

There was a ninefold increase in the likelihood of negative findings on imaging studies for patients with PSA levels below 5 ng/ml compared with patients whose biochemical failure was indicated by PSA levels 5 ng/ml or higher, said Toni Choueiri, M.D., a hematology and medical oncology fellow in Cleveland.