The study below was widely reported yesterday.
A year or two ago there was another in depth study, with results indicating that mammograms don't lower the death rate for breast cancer.
Intuitively, it would seem that early detection of cancer should raise the survival rate. And of course other studies (for both prostate and breast cancer) seem to bear that out. And the "cure" rate for cancer has risen in recent years from on person in three, to one in two. Of course, i tell people they never really declare you "cured" of cancer until you die of something else…
Prostate Cancer Screening May Not Significantly Reduce Deaths, Two Studies Find – washingtonpost.com
The PSA blood test, which millions of men undergo each year, did not lower the death toll from the disease in the first decade of a U.S. government-funded study involving more than 76,000 men, researchers reported yesterday. The second study, released simultaneously, was a European trial involving more than 162,000 men that did find fewer deaths among those tested. But the reduction was relatively modest and the study showed that the tests resulted in a large number of men undergoing needless, often harmful treatment.
Together, the studies — released early by the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with presentations at a scientific meeting in Stockholm — cast new doubt on the utility of one of the most widely used tests for one of the most common cancers.
"Americans have been getting screened for prostate cancer because there is this religious faith that finding it early and cutting it out saves lives," said Otis W. Brawley of the American Cancer Society. "We've been doing faith-based screening instead of evidence-based screening. These findings should make people realize that it's a legitimate question about whether we should be screening for prostate cancer."
Other experts were more circumspect, arguing that the European study did indicate at least some benefit for some men, and that the U.S. trial could eventually confirm those findings as it follows the men for longer periods. But they agreed that the new findings should prompt patients and their doctors to discuss the risks and benefits of the testing.
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