New recommendations against using the PSA test to screen healthy men for prostate cancer could lead to a dramatic drop in use of the test now routinely given to about 75 percent of men over 50, but only if doctors follow through and change what they say to patients.
An independent panel of specialists concluded in draft recommendations posted online that the harms from screening outweigh the benefits for healthy men, and some Boston primary care physicians interviewed yesterday said they routinely listen to the US Preventive Services Task Force’s advice and will urge patients not to have the blood test to measure prostate-specific antigen, or PSA.
Saturday, October 08, 2011
Men are left to wonder as PSA test is disputed
The Boston Globe reports:
