Prostate cancer test timing for men continues to cause serious debate among the medical community across the country. In October the U.S Preventive Services Task force issued a new recommendation arguing against the need for early testing, which has caused lots of discussion among urologists since then.
Currently the task force recommends that men and women should wait until their 50’s before starting to undergo regular PSA testing, which determines the existence of prostate cancer. This recommendation is based on the view that the test "cannot tell the difference between cancers that will and will not affect a man during his natural lifetime," according to the results of a recent test study published in the New York Times. The study concluded that there is “a moderate to high probability” that the harms actually outweigh the benefits, especially in the case of patients aged 50 or lower.
Other opponents of PSA testing have claimed that it can often lead to misdiagnosis and that the conducting of unnecessary biopsy treatment is widespread. They claim that PSA testing is supported by urologists because it is a good source of revenue.
At the same time, the long-standing recommendation of the American Cancer Society is that testing for men should commence at the age of 40. Recently the high-profile case of Mike Tyson has also lent credibility to the view that early testing can be important for prostate cancer prevention. Tyson went through biopsy treatment a few months short of his 50 birthday and he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He had surgery in February of this year and is currently reported to be recovering well, but had he waited for a routine test it might have been too late.
Prostate cancer is the second most frequent type of cancer among men after skin cancer. It also ranks second only to lung cancer in terms of its deadliness.
