PSA test
Tests
See: Quotes
Prostate surgery ruins sex for men by Sam Biser & Richard Shulze, N.D., M.H.
[2012 Aug] Prostate cancer blood test remains contentious For every 1000 men screened, two or three will suffer serious complications from treatment such as a blood clot, heart attack or stroke, and up to 40 will suffer erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence or both. What's more, the USPSTF's investigations suggest that 80 per cent of men with elevated PSA levels have a false-positive result, but end up undergoing a prostate biopsy with "meaningful risk of complication".
[2010 May] Why men shouldn't rely on the prostate cancer test - by the doctor behind its discovery
[2009 July] Cancer Screening: Does It Really Save Lives? by Dr. Julian Whitaker
[Media Sept 2004] Prostate test 'all but useless'
[Gupta 2003] PSA Screening Test for Prostate Cancer - Another Scam?
[2003] PSA Screening Test for Prostate Cancer: An Interview with Otis Brawley, MD By Maryann Napoli
Quotes
"There is no proof that the use of the PSA blood test to
screen symptom-free men will spare anyone a prostate cancer death, yet it is
associated with a considerable amount of unnecessary treatment with after
effects that can be both severe and permanent. All of the treatments for early
prostate cancer carry the risk of impotence and incontinence. In short, cancer
researchers do not know whether PSA screening saves more lives than it ruins....close
to 40% of men who undergo a radical prostatectomy will have a PSA relapse within
two years. This means that they had disease that was outside of the prostate
that was not obvious to the surgeon or the pathologist. It means that if the man
lives long enough, metastatic disease will kill him....the more aggressive
cancers are less likely to benefit from screening......It bothered me,
though, that my P.R. and money people could tell me how much money we would make
off screening, but nobody could tell me if we could save one life. As a matter
of fact, we could have estimated how many men we would render impotent..."
---[2003]
PSA Screening Test for Prostate Cancer: An Interview
with Otis Brawley, MD By Maryann Napoli
"Researchers say men put at risk of impotence. Thousands of men may have unnecessarily undergone an invasive operation to remove their prostate, sometimes suffering impotence and incontinence as a result, because of a screening test which was yesterday written off as all but useless."--- [Media Sept 2004] Prostate test 'all but useless'
Since 1975, its incidence has more than doubled. But rather than having an epidemic of prostate cancer, what we have is an epidemic of detection. Although many more men are being diagnosed and treated, the death rate from prostate cancer has held steady at 3 percent........Much of this treatment is completely unwarranted. Remember, the majority of prostate cancer is pseudodisease. Most men die with it, not of it....But prostate cancer treatment is not benign. Surgical complications include difficulty urinating (17 percent), urinary incontinence (28 percent), and inability to have an erection (more than 50 percent). Radiation damages the rectum and can cause diarrhea and bowel urgency. Side effects of androgen suppression range from sexual dysfunction to risk of diabetes and heart disease.[2009 July] Cancer Screening: Does It Really Save Lives? by Dr. Julian Whitaker