Prostate Screenings

Excepts from an article by Dr. David B. Samadi

In recent months, prostate cancer screening has come under increasing scrutiny after an announcement from the United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) that they will no longer recommend its use.

The USPSTF cited a large American trial that tested the utility of prostate cancer screening and showed no mortality rate benefits. The majority of the control group, however, had actually been screened at some point during the study, blurring the true efficacy of the trial used as evidence. Furthermore, two large population studies in Europe found that screening was associated with major reductions in cancer-specific deaths.

Amid the conflicting results, the American Cancer Society still recommends regular prostate cancer screening for all men older than 50 years of age.  In the U.S., a 39 percent reduction in prostate cancer-specific deaths has occurred since the widespread adoption of PSA screening in the 1990s.  

Prostate cancer is an unpredictable disease. For some men it can have a [lazy] course, however [we know] how devastating the disease can be when it goes untreated. Research has also shown that men who are treated earlier have better functional outcomes following surgery.