PSA Testing For Men – Weighing The Pros And Cons – Part II

The CMO of the American Cancer Society, Mr. Otis Brawley has pointed out that in the dual clinical tests undertaken regarding PSA testing indicate against its regular testing. The tests carried out in the United States proved it was non-beneficial while the tests carried out in Europe established minimal advantages but an inflated number of over-diagnosed cases.

The key issue according to Mr.Brawley is that several preliminary cases of prostate cancer don’t have the potential to be problematic. However, PSA screening did lead to biopsy procedures of the prostrate that eventually lead to early detection of prostate cancer, yet the means to detect which of such cancers are perilous and those that are not, is yet to be determined.

Nevertheless, a majority of men are being prodded to undergo PSA testing by those with vested interests who exalt about the advantages, conveniently missing out on the risk factors associated. Such naive men mostly come to know of the risks only subsequent to undergoing expensive and unfavourable side effects related treatments.

A majority of men that think they were saved from prostate cancer by going through screening, diagnosis and treatment procedures are finally baffled when they realize that the accompanying gains are quite less.

There are certain sections of men who after being detected with lesser risk prostate cancer after routine PSA Test are normally closely observed by their doctors with future deference of surgical intervention or radiation. This approach is generally followed in Europe rather than in the United States.

In an assessment on 342 cases of detected prostate cancer patients that put off treatment for close to a year, nearly half of them didn’t need treatment for close to eight years while the remaining half finally took the treatment on a standard four years subsequent to being diagnosed. Such men were evaluated against men that opted for instantaneous treatment following diagnosis.

The study revealed that those who postponed treatment had a survival rate of 98% while it was 99% in those that undertook instant treatment, which indicates that the drawback to postponing treatment was negligible. The conclusion drawn was that by immediately treating prostate cancer detected by PSA testing one can avail the survival factor, however if one is more choosy regarding when to start treatment, one lowers the risk factor. Though the wait-&-watch strategy does have its drawbacks like constant apprehensions, anxiousness and probably signs of prostate enlargement, hence such strategy is not always the means to tackle the problem.

Read more at: PSA Testing For Men – Weighing The Pros And Cons – Part I

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