Posted on 03/05/2010 8:57:34 PM PST by FreeReign
ATLANTA — The American Cancer Society is urging doctors to make clearer to men that the test used to screen for prostate cancer has limits and may lead to unnecessary treatments that do more harm than good.
The cancer society has not recommended routine screening for most men since the mid-1990s, and that is not changing. But its new advice goes farther to warn of the limitations of the PSA blood test that millions of American men get now. It also says digital rectal exams should be an option rather than part of a standard screening.
(Excerpt) Read more at cleveland.com ...
Did they get bought off or strong armed? You don't change your opinion that drastically unless one of the former occurred.
Since when does less screening for cancer become a better idea than more?
Except in some government bureaucrat’s mind?
Since when does less screening for cancer become a better idea than more?
Except in some government bureaucrat’s mind?
A rectal exam isn’t an expensive test, what the heck?
Amazing, isn't it.
MOST prostate cancers are slow growing.
A huge percentage of men would die of other natural causes before any serious complications from the prostate cancer developed.
However, my Blood Dad almost died from prostate cancer and is incontinent because of it, now.
SOME prostate cancers are fast growing.
Supposedly 100% of men past a certain age who have been autopsied have had some form and degree of prostate cancer.
IIRC
Agreed but it sure isn't fun. A quick finger sure doesn't cost much.
I do not have Prostate Cancer, thank God, but my Doc decided I needed to have an extensive prostate procedure. I don’t know what instrument they used, but I know one thing....I know why I’m not gay.
“A rectal exam isn’t an expensive test, what the heck?”
What I think they are saying is that testing for PSA levels often indicates trouble where there is none and expensive and unnecessary treatment will be applied.
The digital rectal exam is more accurate.
I smell a rat....Early detection is critical so the recommendation to not even inspect the prostate, umm, ‘manually’ makes zero sense.
The head of the organization must be auditioning for one of Obama’s death panels.
So your point is we don't screen for them? Fast or slow you can't treat them if you don't know they exist.
Strange isn't it.
PSA tests aren't a great test for prostate cancer and men with prostate cancer should understand the down side to having surgery. All that said, the ACS downplaying simple inexpensive digital examinations, is irresponsible.
If you ask me, this ACS recommendation has Death Panel Obama's digit prints all over it.
Well...my husband doesn’t get a choice with this. His father is a prostate cancer survivor and so the urologist says he gets to be screened earlier. My father-in-law’s prostate cancer was discovered through PSA tests. They were able to catch it in the earliest stage, fortunately.
Seems to me like routine digital exams are essential.
I still get the PSA test . . .
I don’t think the rush to surgery for slow growing is always wise.
Certainly, I’m for knowing accurately.
PSA is notoriously inaccurate.
If you think it of little value then why do you bother to do it?
The issue is actually quite complicated. Dr Thomas Stamey was the doctor who in 1981 wrote up the medical paper that declared that PSA was a good marker for prostate cancer. In 2004, after looking at the data from the intervening years, he declared that while PSA was an indicator of prostate health (and specifically a condition called BPH)it was not a good marker for prostate cancer (this was written up in the New England Journal of Medicine in July, 2004). In other words, Dr Stamey essentially refuted his own study.
It is one piece of data.
It can point to closer examination . . . perhaps even a biopsy.
I don’t consider it someting to go crazy over.
And, it’s just part of the routine blood screen that the VA does yearly.
Otis Webb Brawley, M.D is Chief Medical Officer for the American Cancer Society and appears to be auditioning for Obama’s death panel.
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