A new study has revealed the current test for predicting prostate cancer might not be as accurate as previously believed.

Doctors recommend men 50 years and older have yearly prostate-specific antigen, or PSA tests. Too much PSA in the blood can indicate prostate cancer.

The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, tracked the health of more than 5,500 men.

Researchers at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City say an increase in PSA could also be caused by an enlarged prostate or infection and that some men developed cancer even though they had low PSA scores.

Prostate cancer kills around 250,000 men a year globally, and is the second most common cause of death in men in the U.S., after lung cancer.