The debate rages on, but evidence that the widely-used PSA test for prostate cancer screening leads to unnecessary and quality-of-life diminishing treatments continues to emerge. The latest study, conducted by doctors at Dartmouth and the University of Connecticut, analyzed data on prostate cancer collected by the National Cancer Institute and population data from the U.S. Census. WebMD reports that from 1986 to 2005, PSA testing resulted in the diagnosis of about 1.3 million prostate cancers that would never otherwise have been detected, and that more than 1 million of these patients were treated with surgery or radiation,which often leaves patients impotent and/or incontinent. WebMD reports that over that time, deaths from prostate cancer declined. And so, taking a conservative approach, the researchers assumed that PSA detection of early prostate cancers -- and not improvements in treatment -- was responsible for the entire drop in prostate cancer deaths. In that case, the researchers found, PSA testing would have saved about 56,500 lives. But some 943,500 men would have been "overdiagnosed."
WebMD also reports that Martin Sanda, MD, director of the prostate cancer center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, studied 342 men who deferred treatment for at least one year after prostate cancer diagnosis.Half the men remained untreated for nearly eight years; the other half eventually opted for treatment an average four years after diagnosis. These men were compared with men who chose immediate treatment after diagnosis. The envelope please: Among those who held off on treatment, 98 percent survived. With immediate treatment, the rate of survival was 99 percent.

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