New guidelines for prostate cancer screening

Tirrell, M. (04/11/2017). New guidelines for prostate cancer screening. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/10/new-guidelines-for-prostate-cancer-screening.html

If you’re a man between ages 55 to 69, one aspect of your medical care may have just gotten a little more confusing.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent and influential panel of experts, published new guidelines Tuesday for screening for prostate cancer for the first time in five years. It changes a 2012 recommendation that one urologist described as “a public health nightmare.”

The new recommendations: Men ages 55 to 69 should “make an individualized decision about prostate cancer screening with their clinician.” That’s updated from a blanket recommendation in 2012 for no routine screening at any age.

The task force made the recommendation, which is still in draft form as it seeks public comment, after determining that the potential benefits and harms of the prostate-specific antigen test are closely balanced in men ages 55 to 69. Those older than 70 shouldn’t undergo PSA screening, the task force said.

“Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers to affect men, and the decision about whether to begin screening using PSA-based testing is complex,” Dr. Alex H. Krist, a member of the task force and associate professor of family medicine and population health at Virginia Commonwealth University, said in a statement.

Some experts think the 2012 guidance was a clear mistake.

“We’ve been jumping up and down about this for years and years,” Dr. Benjamin Davies, an associate professor of urology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, told CNBC. The 2012 guidelines, he said, “were horrible.”

Davies says the recommendations not to screen for prostate cancer likely resulted in deaths that could have been avoided. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men; the American Cancer Society projects more than 161,000 new cases this year in the U.S., with about 26,730 deaths.

If you’re a man between ages 55 to 69, one aspect of your medical care may have just gotten a little more confusing.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent and influential panel of experts, published new guidelines Tuesday for screening for prostate cancer for the first time in five years. It changes a 2012 recommendation that one urologist described as “a public health nightmare.”

The new recommendations: Men ages 55 to 69 should “make an individualized decision about prostate cancer screening with their clinician.” That’s updated from a blanket recommendation in 2012 for no routine screening at any age.

The task force made the recommendation, which is still in draft form as it seeks public comment, after determining that the potential benefits and harms of the prostate-specific antigen test are closely balanced in men ages 55 to 69. Those older than 70 shouldn’t undergo PSA screening, the task force said.

“Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers to affect men, and the decision about whether to begin screening using PSA-based testing is complex,” Dr. Alex H. Krist, a member of the task force and associate professor of family medicine and population health at Virginia Commonwealth University, said in a statement.

Some experts think the 2012 guidance was a clear mistake.

“We’ve been jumping up and down about this for years and years,” Dr. Benjamin Davies, an associate professor of urology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, told CNBC. The 2012 guidelines, he said, “were horrible.”

Davies says the recommendations not to screen for prostate cancer likely resulted in deaths that could have been avoided. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men; the American Cancer Society projects more than 161,000 new cases this year in the U.S., with about 26,730 deaths.

In turn, this led to a major decline in reported incidence of prostate cancer, of 20 percent between 2011 and 2012, and another 6 percent from 2012 to 2013, according to the authors, Paul F. Pinsky, Philip C. Prorok and Barnett S. Kramer.

So how useful is PSA screening? According to the New England Journal analysis, studies imply that 1 prostate cancer death is averted per 1,000 men screened several times each, and followed for 10 to 15 years.

On the flip side, the authors reported, data show about 35 over-diagnosed cases per 1,000 men screened.

Some groups are at higher risk for prostate cancer, including African-American men and those with a family history of the disease. The task force said research on prostate cancer in African-American men “should be a national priority.”

With the update in recommendations, the dispute over PSA testing is likely to continue. The recommendations say nothing about men under 55, for whom some groups do recommend screening in some circumstances. Actor Ben Stiller last year divulged that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer after receiving a “baseline” PSA test at age 46, crediting the test with saving his life.

For now, the task force’s recommendation? Talk with your doctor.

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Wichita Urology Group advises the public of fraudulent phone calls masked with Wichita Urology Group numbers. The scammers behind these fraudulent calls are posing as employees of Wichita Urology and pretending to have sensitive information about the receiver.
While Wichita Urology employees might call patients to schedule appointments or answer billing information, those employees won’t ask patients to pay to gain access to their information or ask them about their sensitive information.