To quote the abstract of the paper discussed below, the use of the PSA test to screen for risk of prostate cancer “in men at normal risk of prostate cancer is one of the most contested issues in cancer screening.” No! Really?
A new article by Armstrong et al. in the journal Public Health Research and Practice provides four slightly different perspectives on the pros and cons of population-based screening for risk of prostate cancer among men at “normal” risk for this disease (i.e., men who have no particular reason to think that they might be at higher than average risk because of race, ethnicity, genetics, or family history).
The full text of this article is available on line, and we suggest that readers look at this for themselves rather than take the sitemaster’s word for the content. It is not a long paper. The four slightly differing perspectives are offered by: an Australian epidemiologist, a US-based primary care physician, two Australian urologists, and an Australian medical oncologist.
However, what we do find interesting is that the general views of each of the contributors seem to be closely congruent with the most recent draft guideline on prostate cancer screening issued by the USPSTF … that in the end the only person who can make a decision about whether or not he wants to be tested for his individual risk of prostate cancer is the individual patient — so long as he has been well informed about the relative risks and benefits of such testing.
Filed under: Diagnosis, Risk | Tagged: benefit, diagosis, PSA, risk, screening, testing |
THE "NEW" PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK 
You talk rubbish as usual. Ian Haines said this:
Dear Mr. O’Neill:
You have taken Dr. Haines’ statement out of context. His statement refers to what he describes in his prior paragraph, where he writes that:
I would entirely agree with Dr. Haines that if the USPSTF was to change its guidance to recommend screening of this type, that it would be “poor public health policy”. They haven’t changed their guideline to include any such recommendation.
Thank you very much for communicating this interesting article.
Suggestion from my side: please don’t call the men at risk patients.