Benefits of prostate cancer screening doubted
POSTED March 21, 2009 - 16:16 | POSTED BY Harleen Kaur
Last edited by Harpreet Bhagrath on March 21, 2009 - 21:01
Physicians have been using the PSA test for nearly 20 years to screen prostate cancerdefinedefine in males. However, according to recent studies, instead of reducing death rates in men, the screenings for prostate cancer might actually lead to unnecessary treatment.
The study by the American Urological Association found that Americans undergoing prostate cancer tests and treatments may suffer from side effects, including sexual impotence and incontinence.
Millions of American men go for blood tests every year for detection of prostate cancer. The deadly disease, one of the most common forms of cancer, strikes at least one in six American men.
Although PSA screening does spot inflammation in the prostate, the reliability of this screening is doubtful.
According to Dr David Penson, a urologist at USC's Keck School of Medicine, “there's a high false positive rate,” which means a worrisome PSA level but not cancerous growth. “If we find prostate cancer, probably 20 to 30 percent are what we call 'over diagnosed cases.' They're not going to affect you in your lifetime.”
Dr. Gerald Andriole, one of the authors of the study, said, “PSA (screening tests) and the fear of prostate cancer are absolutely ingrained in most Western societies right now.”
The findings of the study, to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine, are adding to the controversy around screenings of prostate cancer.
“When you use PSA, you diagnose prostate cancer and the benefits of diagnosing that prostate cancer, generally, in its early form, are not seen for probably 10 to 15 years,” Dr. Phillip Kantoff of Harvard Medical School said.
“Yet the adverse effects of PSA screening are immediate if a patient undergoes treatment,” cautioned Kantoff while explaining the initial treatment of the slow developing disease.
Dr. Mary McNaughton-Collins of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School reiterated that doctors must inform their patients of the risks involved in treatment and tests for prostate cancer.
“For some men the PSA decision is the right one,” she said. “For many of my men, once they're fully informed, they decide to forego the PSA test. For those men, that is the right decision.”
Talking about the common side-effects of treatments, which even includes early death, McNaughton-Collins said, “I think the onus is on us to maintain healthy skepticism about a screening program that's built on inconclusive data on whether or not we are helping more men than we're hurting.”
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force maintained that sufficient evidence is not there to ascertain whether screening for prostate cancer among men below 75 years is beneficial or not. However, it has asserted that men aged 75 and above need not go in for such screening.
As per the data available, nearly 220,000 men are detected with prostate cancer while more than 27,000 men eventually die of the disease every year.
