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Study Doubts Value Of Screening For Prostate Cancer

Studies reported in this week's New England Journal of Medicine question the value of routine screening tests for prostate cancer. Today's New York Times puts the data in perspective:
"Dr. Peter B. Bach, a physician and epidemiologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, says one way to think of the data is to suppose (a patient) has a PSA test today. It leads to a biopsy that reveals he has prostate cancer, and he is treated for it. There is a one in 50 chance that, in 2019 or later, he will be spared death from a cancer that would otherwise have killed him. And there is a 49 in 50 chance that he will have been treated unnecessarily for a cancer that was never a threat to his life."
Conclusion: for the occasional life saved by a PSA test, there is a substantial risk of over-diagnosis and over-treatment.

So much for adding "free PSA tests" to your list of "community benefits." And maybe health care planners should re-examine those rosy scenarios for long-term revenue growth in oncology.


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