Conventional medicine treats all cancers virtually the same way: surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Prostate cancer is no exception.

The way that doctors check for the presence of prostate cancer is with what’s called a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test. But the PSA test was not actually designed as a screening test. It was designed to help monitor prostate cancer that had already developed.

As PSA levels increase, it is assumed that prostate cancer is growing. However, PSA levels can be elevated without the existence of cancer. For instance, elevated PSA can also indicate an inflamed or infected prostate.

In medical school, I was taught that it is important to diagnose cancer early so you can start treatment before it spreads to other parts of the body. The medical-industrial healthcare establishment parrots this strategy regularly.

But do you really need a PSA test?

You would think that early cancer diagnosis is better than later diagnosis. But an early diagnosis is beneficial only if there is a treatment that can prolong lifespan.

In England, PSA screening is not routinely done, as it is in the United States. Not surprisingly, the screening results in more cases of prostate cancer being diagnosed in the U.S.

However, the mortality rates for prostate cancer are the same in the two countries. The unchanged mortality indicates that the screening test is not effective for altering the course of the illness.