New prostate cancer guidelines can lead to unneeded treatments with unwanted side effects
March 5th, 2010 Posted in prostate cancer diagnosisThe new American Cancer Society guidelines issued Wednesday on prostate cancer screening mean that many men will fight a cascade of decisions, with a growing responsibility for those decisions falling on their shoulders.
The new guidelines acknowledge the uncertainties surrounding PSA tests, which have been controversial for some time because assorted studies have produced conflicting results about the value of the screenings.
Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests do detect cancers. But, because PSA test cannot make difference between slow and quick developing cancers, it can make the situation worse by revealing malignancies that wouldn’t cause a problem over a man’s lifetime. By consequence, the PSA screening will lead to unnecessary treatments and undesirable side effects, such as urinary incontinence and impotence. At the same time, it will re-emphasize the need for patient-doctor discussions on whether such tests are appropriate for individual patients.