By Rob Welham
BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhuanet) -- The American Cancer Society has highlighted the risks of prostate cancer screening, and suggested annual testing may lead to unnecessary biopsies and treatments that do more harm than good.
The cancer society does not recommend routine screening for most men, and says that there are limitations in the PSA blood test that millions of American men currently receive. Digital rectal exams should also be optional, rather than part of a standard screening, the society says.
The new advice is the latest example of experts casting doubt on the value of routine screenings in the hunt for early cancers. However prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men after skin cancer, and some doctors disagree with the new prostate cancer screening guidelines.
Dr. David Samadi, chief of Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, said he thinks the new guidelines could cause unnecessary deaths. "In my practice, we find men in their 30s and 40s that are at high-risk and develop prostate cancer," Dr Samadi told Fox News. "Knowing your PSA is power, it is educational; you follow it all the time. You can find a silent prostate cancer that will not affect you, and there is a possibility to over-diagnose, but that's a risk the patient needs to take. You could also find cancer that could lead to death."
A statement from the American Urological Association said it also disagreed with the new guidelines. "(This) may cause significant confusion for patients," the statement read. "The AUA feels there is no single PSA standard that applies to all men, nor should there be."
American men have long been urged to have prostate cancer screenings, but over time, some studies have suggested that most cancers found are so slow-growing that most men could have avoided treatment.
Dr. Andrew M. Wolf, associate professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia Health System and chair of the Advisory Committee, agreed with the society. "Two decades into the PSA era of prostate cancer screening, the overall value of early detection in reducing the morbidity and mortality from prostate cancer remains unclear," Wolf said.
"While early detection may reduce the likelihood of dying from prostate cancer, that benefit must be weighed against the serious risks associated with subsequent treatment, particularly the risk of treating men for cancers that would not have caused ill effects had they been left undetected."
An estimated 192,000 new cases of prostate cancer and 27,000 deaths from it occurred last year in the United States. However, it is a slow-growing cancer in many cases, and depending on a man's age, he may be more likely to die of something else.
(Agencies)
