Florida: Study advises fewer prostate cancer tests

Many men can safely wait two to five years between PSA blood tests without a big risk of missing detection of prostate cancer, suggests a large new study that’s adding to debate about whether annual tests are worthwhile.

Men whose initial test scores are very low 0 to 1 can wait five years before having another PSA test, and men with scores of 1 to 2 can wait two years, the study suggests.

Doing that would cut in half the number of tests performed and would save the health care system up to $1 billion a year, researchers reported in Orlando.

It also would cause only 2.6 percent of men to miss a chance to find out sooner that their PSA had risen to 4, the usual benchmark for doing more tests to check for cancer.

Miami: Hurricane season prediction issued

The National Hurricane Center is predicting six to eight hurricanes in the Atlantic in the coming season, slightly above average.

The government research center expects nine to 13 tropical storms and two to three major hurricanes during the hurricane season, which runs June 1 through November 30. A major storm has winds of 111 mph or more.

This year’s prediction is less than the 15 named storms that formed in the Atlantic last year but more than the 10 named storms that form in the usual hurricane season.

No hurricanes have struck the United States in the past two years, but the center is warning people living along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to be prepared.

Washington: School, police cleared in teacher sex case

The sexual relationship between sixth-grade teacher Mary Kay Letourneau and one of her students could not have been prevented by the school district or local police, a civil jury ruled Monday.

Letourneau was 34 and former student Vili Fualaau was 12 when the relationship began in the spring of 1996. Letourneau gave birth to two daughters fathered by Fualaau and was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for child rape.

Monday’s verdict followed a nine-week trial in which Fualaau’s lawyer argued the school district and police should have picked up on clues to the relationship.