Tom wrote this …
One of the most frequently repeated public health messages, when it comes to cancer, is that screenings save lives. Thus women are told to do self breast exams and get annual mammograms while men are told they must submit to the glove and be screened for prostate cancer.
Trouble is, that mantra isn’t always backed up when scientific studies put the question to the test.
A case in point: Today The New York Times reports on two recent studies that found the prostate specific antigen or PSA test — a blood test used to screen for prostate cancer — “saves few lives and leads to risky and unnecessary treatments for large numbers of men.”
David Ransohoff, M.D.
UNC’s Dr. David Ransohoff spoke favorably about these studies. “This is not relying on modeling anymore,” he said. “This is not some abstract, pointy-headed exercise. This is the real world, and this is real data,” he told the Times.
Ransohoff, who once gave a TV interview to explain why he chooses not to be screened for prostate cancer, is not the only person at UNC who holds this view. Dr. Nortin Hadler wrote in his book, “The Last Well Person,” that while prostate cancer screening seems to make sense, “it doesn’t work.”
However, I can’t say that Ransohoff and Hadler represent the majority view at UNC. Dr. Culley Carson, chief of urology, says the two new studies didn’t follow men long enough to provide a definitive answer. Plus, living with and treating prostate cancer that wasn’t caught early poses serious risks, including the need for medical castration in some cases.
Culley Carson, M.D.
While the new studies add valuable information to the debate, ” it should not be concluded that ignoring prostate cancer and its deadly outcomes is in the best interests of men and their families,” Carson says.
This much seems to be clear: the debate over the value of prostate cancer screenings is far from finished.
1 Comment
March 19, 2009 at 11:37 am
I agree with you.