Prostate cancer screening; the real numbers | Proven Health Ways

The US Preventive Services Task Force just released it?s updated recommendation to healthcare providers; they recommend against PSA-based prostate cancer screening. Why? Doesn?t screening for prostate cancer save lives? Yes, for every 1,000 men aged 55-69 who are screened for 11 years, 1 life will be saved. Some prostate cancers are indeed harmful. The problem is, most prostate cancers are not harmful, and we have a hard time telling the difference. As a result, 30-40 of these 1,000 men will be harmed from treatment; most of these 30-40 men will develop erectile dysfunction or urinary incontinence, about 2 will have a heart problem like a heart attack due to treatment, and 1 will develop a serious blood clot. Some will even die from surgical treatment.

Is it worth it? If you are the one that is saved, of course it is worth it. But as a family doctor, I can tell you that erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence are quite disturbing to men, and most of them would never have been hurt from the prostate cancer.

Note that doing a screening PSA is not the same as checking a PSA in someone who has had prostate cancer or has symptoms that you are trying to figure out.

Bottom line: if you are worried about prostate cancer enough to take the relatively large risk for relatively little benefit, by all means talk with your healthcare provider about it. If you are not worried enough to take such a gamble, wait until we figure out how to treat prostate cancer without harm or how to figure out which prostate cancers are actually going to be harmful someday.

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