Screening the right men for Prostate Cancer

Due to risks associated with over diagnosis and subsequent unnecessary treatment, there is a need for far better selection of men who should be screened for PSA. The trouble is that the name prostate specific antigen (PSA) is a bit of a misnomer in the context of detecting cancer. PSA levels can become raised following a bicycle ride and so the test is not good on its own as a marker for prostate cancer. The test is just part of an overall diagnostic approach.

King’s Hospital Urology Consultant, Richard Popert referring to the government initiative ‘Prostate Cancer Risk Management Programme’ says: “Overall this is a good thing and full specialist consultation was carried out for this initiative which has been ongoing since 2002. I don’t think any Urologist feels that unrestricted national screening needs to be carried out and the studies certainly suggest no specific benefit. The issue here is whether you can select a population which should be screened because they are at greater risk, family history, and whether offering younger men at 40 a baseline test would be of benefit to weed out those most at risk.”

In his article published on totalhealth, Mr Popert explains how to improve the whole diagnostic approach for detecting prostate cancer in men.