What is the latest opinion about routine prostate cancer screenings?
June 29 (Bloomberg) — Routine blood tests to screen for prostate cancer are unnecessary, expensive and lead to the overdiagnosis of cancer and medical complications from treatment, according to a report. Almost half of prostate cancers detected by a blood test in blacks, and more than a quarter in whites, won’t cause symptoms or death and don’t need treatment, the report in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians said. There hasn’t been a well- designed clinical trial yet that shows screening reduces death risk, according to an editorial that accompanied the report. Prostate cancer was the most common malignancy in U.S. men last year with 186,320 new cases, and the second-highest killer among cancers with 28,660 deaths, according to the American Cancer Society in Atlanta. More than 55 percent of men who are 50 or older undergo an annual blood test for the disease, according to the report. Sources:
Although screening for prostate cancer is a common part of a routine checkup for American men, a new finding issued today from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force concludes there is insufficient scientific evidence to promote routine screening for all men and inconclusive evidence that early detection improves health outcomes. The finding is published in the December 3 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.From the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force :Task Force Finds Evidence Lacking on Whether Routine Screening for Prostate Cancer Improves Health Outcomes Although screening for prostate cancer is a common part of a routine checkup for American men, a new finding issued today from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force concludes there is insufficient scientific evidence to promote routine screening for all men and inconclusive evidence that early detection improves health outcomes. The finding is published in the December 3 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. The Task Fo
