PSA

Given the low mortality from slow-growing, localized prostate cancers and the side effects of many treatments, deciding whether to opt for monitoring or treatment can be excruciatingly difficult.
Editors at the journal Nature Medicine recently asked researchers and public health experts from around the world to identify clinical trials that will shape medicine in 2023.  They came up with a varied list of candidates, from cervical and prostate cancer screening protocols to gene therapy for muscular dystrophy and new drugs for Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.  The selections are arbitrary and idiosyncratic, but they are interesting, nevertheless. 
The U.S. Prevention Services Task Force released its 2017 draft recommendations for prostate cancer screening. Here we extensively address the new guidelines, clarify the role of the PSA test, and delve deeper into the topic with Dr. David Samadi, Chairman of Urology and Chief of Robotic Surgery at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital.
Actor Ben Stiller recently chronicled how early diagnosis of prostate cancer, using a routine blood test, saved his life. And he's urging all men over 40 to discuss the PSA test with their doctor. However, we here at the Council and other organizations have been critical of it, so it's fitting that we review where science stands on the issue.
In 2012, an official federal panel designated routine PSA testing a Grade D: don't do it. Since then, doctors across the board have cut back on it. Not urologists, however. Their use of PSAs has not budged. Why? Simply, with more PSAs, abnormal results increase, and more urological procedures are done.
An op-ed in the NY Times co-authored by Dr. H. Gilbert Welch decries Medicare's proposal to penalize doctors for ordering the prostate screening tests. That seems like an odd sentiment to endorse, given that we here at the American Council believe that these tests are being given far too often.
Two studies show that fewer men have been screened for prostate cancer using the PSA test since 2012, when a federal panel advised against routine screenings. With doctors increasingly questioning the test's validity, that's a good thing. But the real key is whether reduction in PSA testing has led to a rise in late-stage or fatal prostate cancer.
Disturbing reports about commonly used drugs mean...what? Screening tests over-used, dietary recommendations revamped. In summary: Science Marches On. That s what science is all about, as new data lead to new conclusions for those able to adjust.
Since about 1990, the PSA blood test has been dramatically over-utilized as a screening test for prostate cancer. That changed in 2012 when a federal panel advised against its routine use. Now, a urologist says, let s try PSAs again. Really?
In November - or as it is now more commonly being referred to Movember - millions of men commit to grow moustaches to raise awareness of men s health issues, such as
Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening is a commonly ordered test, despite it s being a highly debated public health practice, and despite recent recommendations which continue to condemn the screening strategy. However, despite the US Preventive Services Task Force s (USPSTF) and other experts recommendations against routine
No medical organization recommends the prostate-specific antigen test for older men, and yet many primary care doctors continue to administer it even to those over age 75. Why?