|
Many men are having the PSA blood test in the belief it's screening them for prostate cancer. Sobering findings from probably the best study to date further undermine the value of PSA testing, showing there's no such thing as a normal PSA value. Many men are having the PSA blood test in the belief it's screening them for prostate cancer. Sobering findings from probably the best study to date further undermine the value of PSA testing, showing there's no such thing as a normal PSA value. It was a seven year follow up of healthy men aged 55 or over who had regular PSA tests and a biopsy at the end (or should I say in their end). The biopsy meant that the PSA levels could be compared to whether there really was cancer. They found that a PSA of four (what some would say is a normal value) misses 80 per cent of prostate cancers and falsely diagnoses six per cent. A PSA of 1.1 only misses 10 per cent of cancers but at the cost of falsely diagnosing 61 per cent of men, and risking over-detecting insignificant cancer cells. They did find that PSA testing was better at detecting nastier tumours - but these are often the ones unfortunately where there is no curative treatment. It means there is no PSA level at which its accuracy is acceptable and points to how men need a better screening test for prostate cancer which identifies tumours which matter.
|
