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Prostate Cancer ScreeningPosted: May 1, 2007
Your doctor can check you for prostate cancer before you have any symptoms. Screening can help doctors find and treat cancer early. But studies so far have not shown that screening tests reduce the number of deaths from prostate cancer. You may want to talk with your doctor about the possible benefits and harms of being screened. The decision to be screened, like many other medical decisions, is a personal one. You should decide after learning the pros and cons of screening.
The digital rectal exam and PSA test can detect a problem in the prostate. They cannot show whether the problem is cancer or a less serious condition. Your doctor will use the results of these tests to help decide whether to check further for signs of cancer. How accurate are the screening tests? No test is right all the time, and that is true of the PSA test and DRE. The PSA test is better at suggesting that small cancers are present, especially those toward the front or sides of the prostate gland, or deep within it. But the DRE can sometimes help suggest cancers in men with normal PSA levels. That is why both the PSA test and the DRE are usually performed. What do medical experts say about screening? Medical experts agree that every man needs balanced information on the pros and cons of prostate cancer screening to help him make an informed decision. Balanced information is important because medical experts disagree about whether men should be screened regularly for prostate cancer. Medical experts who encourage regular screening believe current scientific evidence shows that finding and treating prostate cancer early, when treatment might be more effective, may save lives. They recommend that all men who have a life expectancy of at least 10 years should be offered the PSA test and DRE annually beginning at age 50. They also recommend offering screening tests earlier to African-American men, and men who have a father or brother with prostate cancer. Medical experts who do not recommend regular screening want convincing evidence that finding early-stage prostate cancer, and treating it, saves lives. They believe some of these cancers may never affect a man's health, and treating them could cause temporary or long-lasting side effects like impotence (inability to keep an erection) and incontinence (inability to control the urine flow, resulting in leakage or dribbling). Because they believe it is unclear if the potential benefits of screening outweigh the known side effects of treatment, they recommend that all men be given information on the pros and cons of screening before making their own screening decision. Source: National Cancer Institute and Centers
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