This is not an uncommon problem in medical research. A diagnostic tool is found that can detect a disease, such as cancer, and then the tool is used for screening before it is clear that the information provides an overall benefit to patients. Anyone in the field have any thoughts on this? ~ Ilene
By ASSOCIATED PRESS, courtesy of TIME
No major medical group recommends routine PSA blood tests to check men for prostate cancer, and now a government panel is saying they do more harm than good and healthy men should no longer receive the tests as part of routine cancer screening.
The panel’s guidelines had long advised men over 75 to forgo the tests and the new recommendation extends that do-not-screen advice to healthy men of all ages.
The recommendation by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, being made public on Friday, will not come as a surprise to cancer specialists.
Yet, most men over 50 have had at least one PSA blood test, the assumption being that finding cancer early is always a good thing.
Not so, said Dr. Virginia Moyer of the Baylor College of Medicine, who heads the task force.
"We have put a huge amount of time, effort and energy into PSA screening and that time, effort and energy, that passion, should be going into finding a better test instead of using a test that doesn’t work," Moyer told The Associated Press late Thursday.
Too much PSA, or prostate-specific antigen, in the blood only sometimes signals prostate cancer is brewing. It also can mean a benign enlarged prostate or an infection. Worse, screening often detects small tumors that will prove too slow-growing to be deadly. And there’s no sure way to tell in advance who needs aggressive therapy.
The task force analyzed all the previous research on this subject, including five major studies, to evaluate whether routine screening reduces deaths from prostate cancer. The conclusion: There’s little if any mortality benefit.
Find the full article at:
http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/07/panel-advises-against-routine-prostate-screening/
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