Once again, prostate cancer screening questioned

Even though this study was relatively small (1,002 men), researchers found that from 1991-1998, the men who were alive were no more likely to have been screened than the men who died of prostate cancer.

Archives of Internal Medicine, January 9, 2006

Steve - I found these in our archives.

Prostate Cancer Screening Treatment Questioned -
According to a report published in the October 5th issue of the British Medical Journal, men who receive prostate cancer screening and treatment do not gain a survival benefit compared to men who do not undergo screening and treatment. The investigation covered two different groups of men -- 94,000 in Seattle, WA (in which the PSA testing rate was 5.4 times higher than men in CT, biopsy rate was more than double, and were five times more likely to have their prostate removed) and 120,621 in Connecticut. Despite the more intensive prostate action in Seattle, the number of men who died from prostate cancer in the two groups over the total 11-year period was nearly equal. 11/2002

Prostate Cancer Over treated -
According to a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 29-44% of men who used a PSA blood test to find prostate cancer over a ten year period were "over-diagnosed." Those patients may have received surgery or radiation treatment for prostate cancer that would never have progressed so far that it threatened their health. Prostate cancer is a slow moving disease that will never become life threatening. In addition a recent Journal of Clinical Oncology study showed that PSA blood test, the supposed "gold standard" for prostate cancer screening, was virtually useless in detecting it. 8/2002

Prostate Cancer Screening Flawed -
Prostate-Specific Antigen, known as PSA, a common blood test used to detect prostate cancer, misses up to 82% of cancers in men younger than 60 and 65% in those older than 60. The new study found that the levels used to trigger a biopsy are too high.
New England Journal of Medicine 7/24/03

Study Questions PSA Prostate Tests -
Almost a third of men over 75 undergo prostate screening, but a new study says there is no evidence that screening men this age would be beneficial to them. The senior author of the study says that autopsies on elderly men show that 30 to 70 percent will have prostate cancer, but they died of something else. The author goes on to say that most men with elevated PSAs do not have prostate cancer. J Nat Cancer Inst 12/3/2003

Prostate Cancer Overused -
Half of all prostate cancers picked up by PSA blood screening are irrelevant, according to a Canadian study. The report estimates that 50% of men aged 55 to 67 who are diagnosed with prostate cancer from a yearly PSA screening would not have shown symptoms of the disease during their lifetime. From the study's calculations, it was suggested that the PSA will find cancer on average 12.3 years before you would ever suffer from it or show symptoms. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 6/18/03

Standard Prostate Test Often Misses Cancer -
15% of older men with supposedly normal PSA readings have prostate cancer anyway - some with aggressive tumors. The study, which appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, conducted with the help of funding and personnel from the National Cancer Institute, is one of several recent studies questioning the efficacy of PSA tests. NEJM 5/27/04