Category: Prostate
While recognizing that some men with high PSA test results are overtreated, officials from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network said that prostate cancer testing should remain a high priority in the coming years, according Medscape Medical News.
Speaking at the group's Annual Conference, Dr. James Mohler, chair of the prostate cancer panel, said that great strides have been made in treating prostate cancer over the past three decades, and that providing less prostate cancer testing would reverse most of the gains.
"We don't want to go back to the 1980s," he said, according to the news source, referring to a time when 16 percent of prostate cancers were only diagnosed after becoming metastatic, when they are less treatable. Currently, only about 4 percent of prostate cancers are diagnosed at this stage.
He said that continuing to monitor men who may be at risk could result in much better outcomes. This may involve repeated biopsies.
About 32,000 men die each year from prostate cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. The group says that PSA testing is the most common method for diagnosing the disease in its early stages when it is more treatable.
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