 |
| Dr. Neil Bell |
The Canadian
Task Force on Preventive Health Care says measuring prostate specific
antigen, or PSA, in blood is not an effective screening tool because it often
produces false-positive results. Task force member Dr. Neil Bell (family physician and Professor, Department of
Family Medicine, University of Alberta)
says almost one in five men aged 55 to 69, for
instance, have at least one false-positive PSA test and about 17 per cent end
up with unnecessary biopsies.
 |
| Dr. S. Larry Goldenberg |
Dr. S. Larry Goldenberg, who is chair of the
Canadian Men’s Health Foundation, a professor of urologic sciences at the
University of British Columbia, and the author of An
Intelligent Patient Guide to Prostate Cancer, does not agree.
In an
article, "Dropping PSA test for prostate cancer puts men’s
health at risk" published in the Toronto Star today, Dr.
Goldenberg is scathing of the Canadian Task Force whom he refers to as "non-experts in the field":
Telling urologists not to use a simple blood test to screen for prostate cancer is like telling cardiologists not to use a stethoscope to check for heart defects. You don’t need to be an expert to know that neither makes sense.Yet that’s what the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, comprised entirely of non-experts in the field, did last week. By urging doctors (and patients) to stop using the prostate-specific antigen test, or PSA, to detect cancer in its early stages, the task force’s recommendation will put men’s health at risk.
Dr.
Goldenberg goes on to point out, "When I began my practice in the early
1980s, before the PSA era, almost one in four men with prostate cancer had
cancer spread to their bones by the time they were diagnosed. Today, it’s one
in 25. Prostate cancer deaths have fallen by 40 per cent.
"Why
the difference? Our treatments have improved, and so have our lifestyles.
Doctors have new tools to manage complications like never before.
"But we
also use the PSA test to find cancers at earlier stages. It’s the most powerful
cancer marker in medicine."
I
encourage you to read
Dr. Goldenberg's full article here. He elaborates on the correct use of PSA
testing, as done by urologists, pointing out: "Without early detection,
even men whose cancer won’t kill them will see their quality of life
deteriorate more quickly and more painfully than if they had been diagnosed
sooner... The task force didn’t consider this data; they considered death, but
not quality of life."
