May 22nd, 2012 by Ellen Shnidman | Permalink
The US Preventive Services Task Force has just come out with a directive advising doctors to stop doing routine PSA tests on men of any age.
This decision has provoked outrage on the part of PSA testing pioneer Dr. William Catolona of Northwestern University. A similar sentiment was expressed by the American Urological Association. Nonetheless, those on the Task Force argue that the small number of lives that are saved form this screening test (5 to 10% of the 28,000 men who currently die of the disease annually) is offset by the much larger number of men who receive severe treatments for a benign form of the disease that would not harm them if left untreated.
Nearly 90% of men diagnosed with prostate cancer end up receiving surgery, radiation, or hormone therapy which can leave them impotent, incontinent or with bowel problems. According to Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Society, our society is used to the idea that cancer is so frightening a disease that whenever it is found it must be cut out quickly, that we don’t stop to think that maybe a slow-growing, benign tumor is better left in place.
As with the mammography controversy in 2009, the decision to undergo a PSA test or not, is recommended by the Task Force to be taken from a private conversation between doctor and patient rather than through mass screening.
According to Alex Nussbaum of Bloomberg News, prostate cancer was diagnosed in about 250,000 patients last year. These new guidelines may affect whether insurers will pay for blood tests measuring PSA.
