Prostate Cancer Risk Calculator
Stratifies the type of cancer according to the CAPRA score including age, Gleason score and PSA.
You can read more about the score, in the text below the calculator.
The prostate cancer risk calculator is based on the UCSF-CAPRA score and determines cancer recurrence risk at five years, in patients who have been diagnosed with prostatic cancer.
The variables used are:
■ Age at diagnosis;
■ Gleason Score;
■ PSA (ng/mL);
■ Higher than 30 (4 points);
■ Clinical stage;
■ Cancer positive biopsy cores percent.
The original study was conducted by Cooperberg et al. in 2005 and involved a cohort of 1,439 men who had undergone radical prostatectomy.
The aim of the study was to design a reliable and easy to use method to estimate recurrence risk, where recurrence was defined as prostate specific antigen (PSA) ≥ 0.2 ng/mL on two consecutive determinations.
According to the study, that was built and validated using Cox proportional hazards and life table analyses, recurrence risk at five years ranged from 15% (for scores of 0 – 1) to 92% (for scores of 7 – 10).
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Steps on how to print your input & results:
1. Fill in the calculator/tool with your values and/or your answer choices and press Calculate.
2. Then you can click on the Print button to open a PDF in a separate window with the inputs and results. You can further save the PDF or print it.
Please note that once you have closed the PDF you need to click on the Calculate button before you try opening it again, otherwise the input and/or results may not appear in the pdf.
CAPRA score items from the assessment
The prostate cancer risk calculator is based on the UCSF-CAPRA score which was derived from statistical data from the Cancer of the Prostate Strategic Urologic Research Endeavor (CaPSURE).
This scoring algorithm has been tested on over 10k patients being treated for prostate cancer. It is aimed at disease risk classification from an oncologic point of view and at helping clinicians to take faster decisions.
The table below introduces the indicators taken into account in the CAPRA prostate cancer risk score:
| CAPRA score item | Answer choice (points) |
| Age at diagnosis | Below 50 (0) 50 or above (1) |
| Gleason Score | No pattern 4 or 5 (0) Secondary pattern 4 or 5 (1) Primary pattern 4 or 5 (3) |
| PSA (ng/mL) | Lower than or equal to 6 (0) Between 6.1 and 10 (1) Between 10.1 and 20 (2) Between 20.1 and 30 (3) Higher than 30 (4) |
| Clinical stage | T1 or T2 (0) T3a (1) |
| Cancer positive biopsy cores percent | Lower than 34% (0) 34% or higher (1) |
Prostate cancer risk increases with age and the condition affects mainly patients over 50, with the average diagnosis age being around 72 years.
The Gleason score, which is the score of the biopsy (primary or secondary) accounts for the pathology of the cancer cells in the biopsy examination (based on how much they resemble normal cells).
The PSA (the prostate specific antigen) value in ng/mL is the value measured at diagnosis and is either under or equal to 6; between 6.1 - 10; between 10.1 - 20; between 20.1 – 30 and above 30.
Raised PSA levels are indicative of prostate cancer, however, the PSA is not used as sole diagnosis because there are many situations of cancer free men with elevated levels of PSA.
Clinical stage refers to the T stage, which is either T1 or T2 or T3a. These belong to the TNM system which shows how big and spread the prostate cancer is.
■ T1 tumors are small in dimension and are usually only discovered after biopsy;
■ T2 tumors are divided in T2a, T2b and T2c depending on the localization of the tumorous cells in the gland and dependant on their spread. T3 tumors are spread through the capsule of the gland (T3a) and even into the seminal vesicles (T3b).
■ T4 tumors are spread to nearby organs.
The cancer positive biopsy cores percent (PBCP) is a good indicator of tumor stage and volume at radical prostatectomy and a predictor of clinical outcome in radiotherapy treated cancers.
The calculator provides the CAPRA score result (ranging between 0 and 10) along information regarding metastasis likelihood in 5 years.
Some authors consider that it addresses some of the limitations of other risk assessment tools such as the D’Amico classification.
About the CAPRA study
The CAPRA score was created by Cooperberg et al. in 2005 as a tool to help in preventing risk of recurrence among patients with localized prostate cancer.
The method is standardized, easy to apply and has proven to be a strong predictor of cancer outcome. The original study involved 1,439 men who had undergone radical prostatectomy.
Disease recurrence was defined as prostate specific antigen (PSA) ≥ 0.2 ng/mL on two consecutive occasions following prostatectomy.
The score was built and validated using Cox proportional hazards and life table analyses.
According to the study, recurrence-free survival at five years ranged from 85% for scores of 0 - 1 (95% CI 73-92%) to 8% for scores of 7 - 10 (95% CI 0-28%).
Original source
Matthew R. Cooperberg, MD, MPH, David J. Pasta, MS, Eric P. Elkin, MPH, Mark S. Litwin, MD, MPH, David M. Latini, PhD, Janeen DuChane, PhD, and Peter R. Carroll, MD† The UCSF Cancer of the Prostate Risk Assessment (CAPRA) Score: a straightforward and reliable preoperative predictor of disease recurrence after radical prostatectomy. J Urol. 2005; 173(6): 1938–1942.
Other references
1. Cooperberg, M.R., J.M. Broering, and P.R. Carroll, Risk assessment for prostate cancer metastasis and mortality at the time of diagnosis. J Natl Cancer Inst, 2009. 101(12): p. 878-87.
2. Gann PH. Risk Factors for Prostate Cancer. Rev Urol. 2002; 4 (Suppl 5): S3–S10.
Specialty: Urology
System: Urinary
Objective: Risk Stratification
Type: Calculator
No. Of Items: 5
Year Of Study: 2005
Abbreviation: CAPRA
Article By: Denise Nedea
Published On: March 21, 2017 · 07:05 AM
Last Checked: March 21, 2017
Next Review: March 21, 2023