Reuters Health - NEW YORK |
A new study
suggests men with advanced prostate cancer may live longer in the "PSA
era" than they did before the screening test began to gain a foothold in
the early 1990s.
The findings - which a leading
cancer expert said were problematic - stoke the heated debate over
prostate cancer screening using the prostate-specific antigen (PSA)
test. Many researchers now fear routine testing may lead to aggressive
treatments that do more harm than good.
"The translation of this is, might it very well
be that for advanced prostate cancer finding it earlier may allow the
earlier initiation of therapy that may then reduce the death rates from
the disease?"
But the chief medical officer of the American
Cancer Society, who was not involved in the work, said the study has a
number of serious shortcomings.
Read the full Reuters Health report
