An independent group of medical experts with the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommends that men of all ages no longer be screened using the prostate-specific antigen blood test to check for prostate cancer.
This is an update of a 2008 recommendation statement from the task force that concluded there was insufficient evidence to make a recommendation on PSA testing.
Triggering the current recommendation against PSA-based testing is new evidence on the harms of PSA-based screening for prostate cancer and the benefits and harms of treatment of localized prostate cancer, according to the report.
The task force concluded that PSA testing may only help one out of every 1,000 men tested avoid dying of cancer. Additionally, the task force said up to five in 1,000 men will die within a month of prostate cancer surgery, and between 10 and 70 per 1,000 men will suffer lifelong adverse effects, including urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction and bowel dysfunction.
Those findings are based off two major trials of PSA testing in asymptomatic men in Europe and the United States.
The USPSTF recommends against PSA-based screening for prostate cancer for men in the general U.S. population, regardless of age. The updated recommendation does not include the use of PSA testing after diagnosis or treatment of prostate cancer. According to the report, the use of PSA testing under those circumstances is "outside the scope of the USPSTF."
The recommendation is a controversial one among urologists.
"I think they're throwing away the baby with the bathwater," said William Catalona, MD, a professor of urology and director of the clinical prostate cancer program at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
Dr. Catalona said in a U.S. News and World Report article that completely stopping PSA testing "would result in countless men dying of metastatic prostate cancer. People are happy to be cured of their prostate cancer, even if they have some side effects."
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This is an update of a 2008 recommendation statement from the task force that concluded there was insufficient evidence to make a recommendation on PSA testing.
Triggering the current recommendation against PSA-based testing is new evidence on the harms of PSA-based screening for prostate cancer and the benefits and harms of treatment of localized prostate cancer, according to the report.
The task force concluded that PSA testing may only help one out of every 1,000 men tested avoid dying of cancer. Additionally, the task force said up to five in 1,000 men will die within a month of prostate cancer surgery, and between 10 and 70 per 1,000 men will suffer lifelong adverse effects, including urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction and bowel dysfunction.
Those findings are based off two major trials of PSA testing in asymptomatic men in Europe and the United States.
The USPSTF recommends against PSA-based screening for prostate cancer for men in the general U.S. population, regardless of age. The updated recommendation does not include the use of PSA testing after diagnosis or treatment of prostate cancer. According to the report, the use of PSA testing under those circumstances is "outside the scope of the USPSTF."
The recommendation is a controversial one among urologists.
"I think they're throwing away the baby with the bathwater," said William Catalona, MD, a professor of urology and director of the clinical prostate cancer program at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
Dr. Catalona said in a U.S. News and World Report article that completely stopping PSA testing "would result in countless men dying of metastatic prostate cancer. People are happy to be cured of their prostate cancer, even if they have some side effects."
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