Comments on: Prostate Cancer Screening Found to be Useless

By: Shirley Jenkins

Shirley Jenkins — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:27:28 +0000

I am asking all of my friends (and friends of friends) to help me support a child cancer foundation that I really believe in.

It is a facebook contest at http://bit.ly/crkrEE and the name of the foundation is called The Seany Foundation (their site is at http://www.theseanyfoundation.org/).

Seany died of Ewing’s Sarcoma cancer a few years ago and he was a teenager. I knew Seany and promised his family I would help where I could. Chase Bank is having a charity contest ending in about 6 days and if you could VOTE (it is free to vote) with your facebook account AND post it to your facebook wall, I would really, really appreciate it. http://bit.ly/crkrEE

By: Ty

Ty — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:41:21 +0000

thank you for posting this.
people should be aware of these new findings, as to weigh their options more.

after the tests, i wonder when its is a “wait and see thing” and when it’s “let’s go for treatment” thing?

By: PSA stands for “pretty sorry affair” « Medical Skeptic

PSA stands for “pretty sorry affair” « Medical Skeptic — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:15:42 +0000

[...] have written before about the uselessness of screening for prostate cancer in the past, which brought on the vitriole [...]

By: The Great Prostate Mistake | Before You Take That Pill

The Great Prostate Mistake | Before You Take That Pill — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:15:29 +0000

[...] have written before about the uselessness of screening for prostate cancer in the past, which brought on the vitriole [...]

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:32:54 +0000

While a layperson, I was a PA with a group of urologists for five years.

The PSA test, DRE, and possible ultrasond and biopsy are not useless tests. They do prevent prostate cancer deaths. They are objective diagnostic tests, instead of one guessing with, say, a mental disorder.

However, are these tests over-utilized? Yes. Absolutely. A mildly elevated PSA does not mean you have to work up the patient to rule out prostate ca. Nor should hematuria mean that you have to do a cystoscopy on such a person. Doctors, at times, have an affinity for money, and this clouds their judgement, unfortunately.

Also, with prostate cancer, it is very slow growing. An eighty year old man with an elevated PSA or prostate cancer in fact, likely does not need to be treated. It’s a ‘watch and wait’ thing.

Some this week have concluded that the risks of a simple PSA blood test outweigh the benefits. That simply is not true. Aggressive work ups regarding this issue when not necessary is where the risk exists.

By: The Graduate

The Graduate — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:10:32 +0000

I knew it.

Plastics.

Nevertheless, I still eat my tomato sauce and broccoli sprouts in order to go with the flow. Never made sense to me why those guys in the Flomax ads were riding around on racing bikes. Talking about stressing the plastic….

Holding big rods off the back of the boat made more sense.

By: Doug Bremner

Doug Bremner — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:37:42 +0000

Ha ha! Very funny all. Glad we finally flushed out Mr. Kali. As for more ‘sensitive’ tests I think the problem is that the prostate is a very plastic organ and so anything that measures ‘neoplasticity’ is going to be fraught with the overkill or false positive problem. Same goes for breast. As for the psychological factor of being told you are normal it is not worth the risk of getting the false positives and having to go through all the worry, biopsies, etc.

By: Giana's husband

Giana's husband — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:01:34 +0000

oops! Good job it’s a pseudonym

By: Gianna

Gianna — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:19:10 +0000

Dear husband,
you misspelled my name!

By: Giana's husband

Giana's husband — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:55:17 +0000

What about the psychological value provided to those of us who leave the doctor’s office each year having been told: “You’re PSA is fine”? I take the point that if I learn that my PSA level is raised I’ll be faced with a quandary, but so far I’m happy to be told this is one thing I don’t need to worry about (notwithstanding the possibility of false negative results).