May 14th, 2013
Dr Elist Talks About Harms and Benefits of Prostate Cancer Screening in this post. The new guideline from the American College of Physicians (ACP) published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine, recommend doctors to inform men without underlying symptoms that they’re unlikely to benefit from prostate cancer screening and may experience serious risk of various harms, and complications from biopsy or treatment that may include infection, incontinence, or impotency.
Based on these risks the US Preventive Services Task Force has recommended against prostate cancer screening with the PSA test.
Prostate cancer screening means looking for cancer before it causes symptoms. This helps to find cancer at an early stage when it may be easier to treat.
Two tests are commonly used to screen for prostate cancer:
As a rule, the higher the PSA level in the blood, the more likely a prostate problem is present. But many factors, such as age and race, can affect PSA levels. Some prostate glands produce more PSA than others. PSA levels also can be affected by:
Because many factors can affect PSA levels, your doctor is the best person to interpret your Prostate Cancer Screening results.
*Source: http://www.cdc.gov