Are prostate cancer screenings done too late - and too often?
(CBS) Are men being screened for prostate cancer too late - and too often?
That's what some experts are wondering after the results of a new study were revealed at a medical conference on May 19. It showed that testing a man's blood for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) earlier than is now the norm could predict the risk of dying of prostate cancer decades down the road.
Researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center analyzed blood samples donated from over 12,000 Swedish men in the 1970's and found 44 percent of prostate cancer deaths occurred in the 10 percent of men who had the highest PSA levels at an early age.
"What that means is if you're 45 and you have a very low PSA, the chances you're going to develop the kind of prostate cancer that kills is very small," Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society told CNN. "That's separate from saying that the chances you'll develop prostate cancer are small. The chances that you'll develop the kind that kills are small."
The American Cancer Society urges men to talk to their doctors about PSA screening starting at age 50, and many men get screened on a frequent basis. But the study seems to suggest that guys might be able to get away with less frequent tests. That's potentially good news since frequent testing can lead to overdiagnosis - saying men have prostate cancer when they might never show symptoms in their lifetime - leading to surgery that can cause erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence.
"Instead of testing all men each year or every two years, screening and surveillance efforts can be focused on early detection of prostate cancer in those men who are found to be at high risk of death from the disease," co- author Dr. Hans Lilja, attending research clinical chemist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering said in a written statement.
Prostate cancer strikes almost 220,000 men each year and kills 32,000.
The National Cancer Institute has more on prostate cancer.