Prostate Cancer Calculators

[Updated December 8, 2009]

Types of Predictive Calculators

. In [Full text] [PMID: 19918337] Lowrance (papers) and Scardino (papers) discuss predictive models for prostate cancer covering methods that use risk classifications (e.g. d'Amico risk groups), tables (e.g. Partin tables), risk scores (e.g. CAPRA score), nomograms (e.g. Kattan nomograms)) and systems pathology which refers to using a wider range of variables than the traditional clinical variables (e.g. Aureon Labs' Px method). See [Table 1]. Future methods will likely incorporate genetic inputs to improve prediction accuracy. The authors point out that the need to discretize variables into a number of groups potentially reduces the accuracy of risk classifications, tables and risk scores whereas nomograms do not suffer from this problem (however, whether this potential loss of prediction accuracy is material is not discussed).

Comprehensive Calculators

. There are two particularly comprehensive prostate cancer calculator sites. The links to the first two are easy to remember since their links are nearly the same: http://www.nomogram.org (University of Montreal) and http://www.nomograms.org (Sloan Kettering). The Sloan Kettering site ends in "s" whereas the University of Montreal site does not.

A. Memorial Sloan Kettering Calculators. To access the Sloan Kettering online calculators go to http://www.nomograms.org and then click on Prostate in left hand column. That takes you to a new page and on that click on Open calculator in box in upper right. When new window appears click on "No". The following calculators are provided:

• Pretreatment calculator: Given PSA, Gleason Subscores, Stage & treatment get prob of disease involvement and disease free progression after 5 years for each of surgery, external radiation and seeds.


• Post treatment calculator: Given PSA, surgical margin and disease involvement get prob of disease free progression in 2, 5 and 7 years.


• Hormone refractory calculator: Given Age, Karnofsy PS, Heomglobin, PSA, LDH, Alkaline Phosphates and Albumin get 1 year, 2 year and median survival probabilities.


• Prostate Volume Calculator: Given dimensions & PSA calculate volume & PSA density.


• Life Expectancy: Given age and race calculate male life expectancy.


• PSA Doubling Time: Given series of dates and PSA values calculate doubling time, slope of log(PSA) vs. time curve and PSA velocity. This calculator does have the restriction that it cannot accept PSA values less than 0.1 which may be a problem if you are using an ultrasensitive PSA assay. In that case enter all your PSA values as 10x or 100x the real PSA value and the doubling time computed will still be correct.
  

B. University of Montreal Cancer Prognostics and Health Outcomes Unit has a suite of calculators at http://www.nomogram.org. This site has prostate cancer calculators for a wide variety of situations:

Before Diagnosis. There are 6 pre-biopsy calculators which can be used prior to biopsy to give the probability of biopsy results. The first is used if PSA is in the 0 - 2.5 ng/ml range, the second is for initial extended biopsy, the third is for extended repeat biopsy, the fourth is for saturation biopsy, the fifth is for 120 day mortability after biopsy based on a comorbidity score and the sixth is for initial sextant biopsy.

Before Treatment I. There are calculators to predict the probability of Gleason sum upgrade, extra capsular extension, seminal vesicle invasion and lymph node invasion. (Regarding Gleason Score upgrading, note this 2008 paper on factors making Gleason Score upgrade more likely here: [PMID: 18207180] which finds that "A total of 134 patients (50%) were upgraded postoperatively to Gleason score 7 or higher. Preoperative prostate specific antigen greater than 5.0 ng/ml (p = 0.036), prostate weight 60 gm or less (p = 0.004) and more cancer volume at biopsy, defined by cancer involving greater than 5% of the biopsy tissue (p = 0.002), greater than 1 biopsy core (p <0.001) or greater than 10% of any core (p = 0.014), were associated with pathological upgrading. Upgraded patients were more likely to have extraprostatic extension and positive surgical margins at radical prostatectomy (p <0.001 and 0.001, respectively". A second 2008 paper [PMID: 18782303] concluded that "Men with a higher PSA level, perineural invasion and high-volume cancer at biopsy are most likely to be upgraded, while men with a large prostate volume and low-volume cancer at biopsy are more likely to be downgraded. These findings have implications for men with prostate cancer managed without confirmation by RP of their true GS.". Also [PMID: 18778348] concludes that " risk of upgrading is a function of two opposing contributions: (i) a more aggressive phenotype in smaller prostates and thus increased risk of upgrading; and (ii) more thorough sampling in smaller prostates and thus decreased risk of upgrading. When sampled more thoroughly, the phenotype association dominates and smaller prostates are linked with an increased risk of upgrading. In less thoroughly sampled prostates, these opposing factors nullify, resulting in no association between prostate size and risk of upgrading. These findings help to explain previously published disparate results of the importance of prostate size as a predictor of Gleason upgrading.")

Before Treatment II. There are calculators for calculating the probability of clinically insignificant prostate cancer, the probability of predominantly transition zone prostate cancer, probability of survival within 30 days of surgery and the probability of 10 year survival.

• After Surgery. There are post op calculators for the probability of PSA recurrence, Local recurrence, Distant recurrence and prostate cancer specific survival.
• After PSA Relapse. There are calculators for the probability of Metastatic progression, mortality for surgical patients undergoing subsequent hormone therapy and mortality after PSA relapse.
• Hormone Refractory Prostate Cancer
. There is a calculator for the probability of survival for patients with androgen independent prostate cancer.
• Other. At the bottom of its calculators page the University of Montreal has doubling time and Life expectancy calculators.

Other Calculators

. d'Amico Risk Categories. Although not a calculator, a useful classification is the d'Amico risk category stratifying disease into Low, Medium and High Risk. More is available in the third paragraph here.

Also check out these calculators:

Wolfram Alpha provides a box in which you enter a query and find out where among the population you stand on various medical tests, e.g. enter one of these:
psa 5 age 60
vitamin d 25 age 60 male
bmi 25 age 60 male
life expectancy age 60 male
blood pressure 125/75 age 60 male
ldl cholesterol 125 age 60 male
hdl cholesterol 50 age 60 male
or if you omit the test value then it gives the population reference range, e.g. enter:
psa age 60

SWOP. A site with several calculators is the http://prostate-riskindicator.com/via.html site, also referred to as SWOP, of The Prostate Cancer Research Foundation is closely related to the Department of Urology of the Erasmus MC, University and Medical Centre of Rotterdam.

• Risk indicator 1 is based on questions related to urinary frequency. It is assumed that no testing has yet been done.
• Risk indicator 2 is based on the result of a PSA test.
• The next three indicators seem to have disappeared from the site but in case they return they are based on ultrasound results (0/1), digital rectal exam (0/1), prostate volume (ml) and PSA (ng/ml).
  • Risk indicator 3 allows a more precise prediction of a positive biopsy than indicator 2 because it includes the results of the rectal examination, the ultrasonography (hypoechogenic lesions yes or no?), and of the volume of the prostate determined at ultrasonography. Each of these parameters has independent value in predicting biopsy outcome (Roobol et al, Prostate 2006).
  • Risk indicator 4 is based on 10890 men who were previously screened, had a serum PSA < 4.0 ng/ml and were not biopsied. Of these men 1921 were biopsied 4 years later for PSA progression to = 3.0 ng/ml, 430 cancers were found (PPV 22.4%).
  • Risk indicator 5 is based on 989 men who were previously screened, were biopsied and had no cancer. These men were again biopsied 4 years later with PSA values = 3.0 ng/ml, 120 cancers were found (PPV 12.1%). Both, a negative previous screen and, more importantly, a prior negative biopsy significantly decrease the risk of a later positive biopsy.
• Risk indicator 6, also recently gone missing from the site, calculates the chance of having indolent prostate cancer which may not require immediate treatment. It uses Gleason Score, mm of cancer in biopsy, mm healthy tissue in biopsy, prostate volume (cc) and PSA (ng/ml).

PSA Velocity. This site provides a raw PSA velocity as well as one adjusted for hemodilution (i.e. taking into account a lower than otherwise PSA value due to dilution in a large amount of blood normally associated with obesity). The PSA Velocity Calculator is also mentioned in this Medical News Today article.

Risk prior to medical tests. This calculator from Harvard requires no medical tests as inputs -- only age, height, consumption of animal fat, consumption of tomatos, vasectomy, family history and race. http://www.yourdiseaserisk.harvard.edu/hccpquiz.pl?lang=english&func=home&quiz=prostate

Risk prior to biopsy. Eric Klein (papers) of the Cleveland Clinic recommends biopsy to his patients if this risk calculator assesses the risk of prostate cancer to exceed 10% in this paper: [Full Text] [PMID: 19652036]. The calculator gives risk of prostate cancer and risk of advanced prostate cancer given: Race, Age, PSA level in ng/ml, Family History of Prostate Cancer, Digital Rectal Examination results, Prior Prostate Biopsy and whether the patient is taking finasteride.

Risk prior to biopsy. Given PSA score, DRE, prior biopsy results, race, age and family history, this gives the chance of biopsy finding prostate cancer as well as the chance of Gleason 7 or higher prostate cancer: http://www.compass.fhcrc.org/edrnnci/bin/calculator/main.asp based on [PMID: 16622122] [Full Text]

Partin Tables Prob of disease involvement given PSA, GS and stage. http://urology.jhu.edu/prostate/partintables.php Also see [PMID: 11744442] [Full Text] and [PMID: 17572194] [Full Text]

PCRI calculators. http://www.prostate-cancer.org/tools/software/software.html

Doubling Time Calculators. This material has been moved to a 4 part series of posts on PSA Doubling Time (PSADT)

Radiation Disease Free Probability Excel Spreadsheet. http://www.prostate-cancer-radiotherapy.org.uk/calculator.htm

Radiation Oncology Calculators for Palm. http://radonc.usc.edu/USCRadOnc/Downloadable/PalmOS/PalmPrograms.html

Life Expectancy Tables. These are not online calculators but rather are instructions, a table and a figure.

There is a link to a life expectancy table from the US Social Security Administration (SSA) and an explanation of how to use it on page PROS-A (page 13 of the PDF document) of the NCCN Prostate Cancer Practice Guidelines. They recommend adjusting the ages in the actuarial table to reflect current health status. http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/PDF/prostate.pdf

A direct link to the aforementioned SSA actuarial table is here. This table gives total expected lifetime for men of a given age. To get remaning lifetime subtract current lifetime from total lifetime. http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4c6.html

Page SAO-A (page 7 of the PDF document) of the NCCN Senior Adult Oncology Practice Guidelines contains a figure with remaining expected years of lifetime for each 5 year age group as well as upper and lower quartiles. This may be a bit easier to use since it directly gives the remaining lifetime and the quartiles can be used for patients in above average or below average health. http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/PDF/senior.pdf The figure is based on [PMID: 11386931] .

Mortality from Common Diseases. Four charts giving the mortality from vascular disease, cancer, infection, lung disease, accidents and all causes combined given age, sex and smoking status. There are 2 simple charts: one for men and one for women and two more detailed charts again one for men and one for women. The charts are available [here] as supplements to this paper: [PMID: 18544745]. There is further discussion in [PMID: 18544738] [full text].

Charlson Comorbidity Score. Given age and which of 19 diseases the patient has (weighted by association with mortality) the Charlson Score can be calculated and a formula or tables used to calculate the 10 year survival probability. There are calculators and more info here: [Institute of Algorithmic Medicine Calculator] and here: [info] [Hall et al Calculator] and [Walz 2007]. Also see [PMID: 16770340] . This paper [PMID: 17979925] concluded that clinicians have an accuracy of less than 70% whereas Walz claims that his group's nomogram has an 84% accuracy on a validation sample.

Probability of Indolent Cancer based on diagnosis variables. Steyerberg et al published a scoring system in Jan 2007 [PMID: 17162015] (based on updating the original work by Katan et al [PMID: 14532778]) which gives the probability of indolent cancer. It uses the ultrasound and biopsy results (PSA, prostate volume, Gleason score, mm of cancer tissue in cores, mm non-cancer tissue in cores) each of which gives a number which are summed and looked up on a chart showing the probability of indolent cancer. If this probability is high then delay to treatment or active surveillance/watchful waiting could be considered. See page 2 of http://www.pcngcincinnati.org/2007/2007_02.pdf. As noted by Jon Nowlin the original nomogram assumed 6 biopsy cores and could give misleading results if a different number of cores were used. Nowlin has provided an Excel spreadsheet to perform this calculation which corrects for the number of cores [here] and provides explanation of it use [here]; however, a significant caveat is that "Chun et al. [6, 7, 33] demonstrated recently that nomograms developed in the sextant biopsy era may not be able to predict the probability of PCa on needle biopsy in the extended biopsy era, equally accurate as they used to in the sextant biopsy era. In consequence, many clinicians are reluctant to use tools that were developed in the sextant biopsy era [46]." [PMID: 17333203]

Probability of Cancer in Suspected Patients After Ultrasound. Focusing on patients with PSA < 10 who are suspected of having cancer and so have had an ultrasound, Garzotto et al (2005) [Full Text] [PMID: 15781880&dopt] develop a [decision tree] model. Unlike scoring systems and nomograms the decision tree is particularly easy to describe. The probability of cancer was less than 5 percent except for the 4 high risk groups illustrated in the decision tree diagram or in words in the abstract. No calculator is really required since the decision tree format is so simple to describe. The variables used are PSA, PSA density (PSAD), existence of hypoechoic lesions, age and prostate volume in cubic centimeters. Existence of hypoechoic lesions and prostate volume are items that are available from the ultrasound. PSA density is PSA divided by prostate volume and therefore also depends on the ultrasound.

Probability of Recurrence after RP based on diagnosis variables Cooperberg et al published the CAPRA score system in Nov 2006 [PMID: 17039503] which gives the probability of recurrence after radical prostatectomy based only on variables known at time of diagnosis. It is based on assigning a score to each of 5 risk factors (PSA, Gleason score, clincal T-stage, no. of positive biopsy cores and age) and summing giving a number between 0 and 10 which is looked up on a chart to give the probability of recurrence. See page 3 of PCNG document or this UCSF material. A November 2007 study, [PMID: 17868719], validated the CAPRA score on an independent set of patients from Germany. An older 2003 recurrence table was published by Han et al [online calculator] [Full Text] [PMID: 12544300]. That table was based on a single surgeon at a single institution. Also see the discussion of d'Amico risk categories earlier on this page. We have a separate page where we discuss Biochemical Recurrence.

Recurrence after Salvage Radiotherapy Stephenson presented a nomogram for predicting the 6-year progression-free probability after salvage radiotherapy based on prostatectomy PSA, Gleason Score, SV invasion, Extracapsular Extension, Surgical Margins, lymph node mets, persistantly elevated post-prostatectomy PSA, pre-RT PSA, PSADT and radiation dose. See [Figure 3] of [Full Text] [PMID: 17513807]. The nomogram can also be found in slide 15 of his [ASCO 2006 presentation]. In slide 17 he shows that this model predicts better than competing models (actually he shows it has a higher concordance score which is not completely identical but it is suggestive). Also see this video of his presentation [link], his 2004 paper [PMID: 15026399] [Full Text] and his May 2007 paper [PMID: 17513807].

Probability of Survival in AIPC. Svatek et al published a nomogram In Jan 2006 to predict the probability of survival in androgen independent prostate cancer. [PMID: 16423446]. It uses the PSA at ADT initiation, PSA doubling time, Nadir PSA on ADT and time from ADT to AIPC diagnosis and gives the 12, 24, 36, 48 and 60 month disease-specific survival probabilities. See page 3 of http://www.pcngcincinnati.org/2006/2006_08.pdf

Radiation Dosage Calculator The radiation dosage calculator will estimate your lifetime radiation exposure in mSv given the types and numbers of exposures. There is a separate post on radiation risks which has more information on this area.

Pathology. A rule of thumb is that for each cubic centimeter (cc) of benign prostate tissue that 0.067 ng/ml of PSA will be produced. Thus for a prostate of 40cc (this is the volume of the prostate, not the volume of the tumor) one would expect a PSA of 40 x 0.067 = 2.68 ng/ml so if the actual PSA were 4.0 ng/ml then there is 4.0 - 2.68 = 1.32 ng/ml that is unexplained and might be due to cancer cells or other factor listed here. [link]. In a December 2008 paper Kato et al devised the following formulas for tumor volume (cc) and percent tumor volume as a function of PSA (ng/ml):


Tumor Volume (cc) = 3.476 + 0.302 x PSA

Tumor Volume (%) = 11.331 + 0.704 x PSA



[PMID: 19060997] [Full Text]

Castrate Resistant Prostate Cancer. This calculator answers the question of whether the patient has castrate resistant prostate cancer and what the optimal treatment is. In association with this calculator readers may wish to view this presentation by Nicholas Vogelzang (papers).

Body Mass Index Calculator.The WHO chart shown here (also found in Box 12.3 on page 375 of the WCRF/AICR diet and cancer report and on Wikipedia - also see info on subdivisions) uses height and weight and gives an assessment of underweight/normal/overweight. Chapter 8 of the aforementioned WCRF/AICR diet and cancer report discusses fatness in general and associated risks for various cancers. An alternative to the charts is this BMI calculator.

Marine Corps Fitness Test. This [site] describes how to carry out and calculate your fitness using the US Marines Corps Fitness Test.

Non-Medical Calculators. Although not related to the main topic of our site the following page calculates numerous items in the areas of personal/family (will your marriage last to its Xth anniversary? and more), fun/sports (next move in rock/paper/scissors and more), politics (predict presidential election and more), media (predict the success of a book title and more), health (predict probability of diseases and more) and money (predict how much you will have to retire and more) and economic (predict stock prices and more): [yale calculator links]