Reports that an influential group of advisers plans to recommend against routine screening of prostate cancer has drawn criticism from health groups worried the move will increase cancer deaths in men.
The New York Times on Thursday reported that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the same group that recommended doctors scale back on mammograms for women, is thinking of recommending against use of the prostate-specific antigen or PSA test.
The Times and other news outlets said the task force, an independent panel appointed by the federal government, plans to give a common blood test known as the PSA test a rating of "D," suggesting there is moderate or high certainty that the test has no net benefit or that the harms outweigh the benefits.
Editor’s Note: Prostate Size Can Greatly Affect Quality of Life and Sleep. What Size Is Yours? See This Photo.
Current recommendations say there is insufficient evidence to support the use of the test.
"Today's decision of no confidence on the PSA test by the U.S. government condemns tens of thousands of men to die this year and every year going forward if families are to believe the out-of-date evidence presented by the USPSTF," said Skip Lockwood, chief executive of ZERO, a group devoted to ending prostate cancer.
"A decision on how best to test and treat for prostate cancer must be made between a man and his doctor. This decision is coming from a panel that doesn't even include a urologist or medical oncologist."
Dr. Scott Eggener, an expert in prostate cancer from the University of Chicago, said the new recommendations, if adopted, would discourage men from getting prostate cancer screening.
Eggener said the move "is a classic example of 'throwing the baby out with the bath water.' A more sensible approach is to use all of our currently available tools to intelligently determine which patients are most likely to benefit from screening and treatment."
The prostate-specific antigen or PSA test measures levels of a protein produced by the prostate gland to gauge a man's risk of prostate cancer, but the test has a high rate of false positives.
Many studies have suggested that PSA screening does more harm than good because it can identify slow-growing cancers that may never have posed any health threat.
And once men hear they have a risk of prostate cancer, they often opt for treatment, which can cause impotence and incontinence.
The problem is that there is no accurate way at the moment to tell which tumors are deadly, and which are harmless.
And prostate cancer remains deadly. It is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States behind lung cancer.
Lockwood said recent studies, including one from Sweden, have suggested the PSA test saves lives.
According to the American Cancer Society, around one man in six will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime. More than 2 million men in the United States who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point are alive today.
Dr. Virginia Moyer of Baylor College of Medicine who chairs the task force, told Reuters the task force has an evidence report coming out in the Annals of Internal Medicine on Tuesday.
And she confirmed that an evidence recommendation statement will be released, which is a draft statement that will be posted for a month-long public comment period.
A spokeswoman for the journal did not respond to requests for comment.
Editor’s Note: Prostate Size Can Greatly Affect Quality of Life and Sleep.
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