Private MD News

Experts continue to recommend PSA testing despite controversy

Category: Prostate

Despite recent controversy over the efficacy of extensive PSA testing for men over age 50, experts say that it is still the standard of care for men in this age group and remains the best tool for detecting potentially dangerous growths at an early stage when they are more treatable.

Dr. Brantly Thrasher, a urologist and professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center, told the Kansas Senior Press that he has seen older patients who have never received a PSA test. Consequently, these individuals risked dangerous deterioration of their condition.

"A 65-year-old doctor came to see me for his first PSA screening, and it showed that he had a very aggressive cancer," he told the news source. "He had not been screened sooner because he'd heard it wasn't accurate or useful. If he'd been screened starting when he was about 40, there's a 25-year window in which we could have been watching, diagnosing and treating."

He added that most other cancers don't have a diagnostic test that is even close to as effective as the PSA test, and that much of the controversy is overblown.

The National Cancer Institute has called the procedure one of the most important measures of prostate risk.