Prostate cancer: assessment of risk using digital rectal examination, tumor grade, prostate-specific antigen, and systematic biopsy.

Refinement in the local staging and risk assessment for prostate cancer patients utilizing clinical parameters is ongoing. DRE, tumor grade, and PSA provide some useful information for risk assessment in individual patients. More recent studies using percent free PSA levels and systematic biopsy results have added additional staging information and may play a more significant role in the future in risk assessment. This information should supplement additional imaging tests in the management of these patients.