Prostate cancer screening may lead to harmful effects

Prostate cancer screening may lead to harmful effects

A health panel from the U.S. government said Friday that prostate cancer routine screening does not make any difference in helping save lives among healthy men but instead triggers the necessity of more prostate tests and treatments. The draft recommendations of the Task Force will be made available for public scrutiny by Tuesday.

The recommendation was based on 5 different clinical tests conducted. It suggests that healthy men of all ages without symptoms of prostate cancer must avoid PSA or prostate specific antigen test which measures protein level in the blood.  However, the antigen test will have significant impact on older men aged 50 and above, who routinely administer the PSA test.

The risk involved is the over-diagnosis and over-treatment. Mike LeFevre, co-chair of the panel, said most of the detected cancers do not really cause harm throughout a man’s lifetime. Majority of cancers are not harmful but 90% of American men diagnosed with prostate cancer after undergoing PSA test ended up getting treatment and overcomplicating things.

The panel also concluded that other forms of prostate cancer screening such as a digital or ultrasound rectum exam are not effective and there are no evidence suggesting their effectiveness. Ana Fadich however called the panel’s recommendations as puzzling and pointed to statistical evidence that deaths caused by prostate cancer are declining due to awareness among men and through various screening methods available.

Posted by George Daniels on Saturday October 08 2011, 11:52 AM EST. Ref: Cnn. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0