prostate-report.org

Prostate cancer screening requires common sense

The blood test that screens for prostate cancer often allows doctors to find the cancer at such an early stage that the disease may not need to be treated. Unfortunately, they are often unable to determine which cancers would remain slow-growing and which would grow quickly and should be treated.

Therefore, patients of all ages should discuss with their physicians whether they should be screened for prostate cancer. I would argue that a healthy 75-year-old is more appropriate for screening than is a 62-year-old who has some other disease that will likely take his life in a matter of a few years.

As is true for most reports on medical decision making, the best choices are made by understanding the full story.

Tags: psa