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:
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.
"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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