A survey of top doctors conducted by U.S. News & World Report found that almost all urologists and more than 60 percent of those who specialize in internal medicine support routine PSA testing. They rejected a proposal issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force which advised doctor not to routinely screen men for PSA levels unless they have "highly suspicious" symptoms that point to prostate cancer.
The PSA test screens men for prostate cancer by measuring the blood level of a specific protein (prostate-specific antigen) that is connected with an increased risk of prostate cancer. Its purpose is to catch the disease early, when it's at its most curable stages. Of the 20 million men who undergo PSA screening each year, about 250, 000 are diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The government's proposal found there was little evidence that routinely screening men for PSA levels significantly reduced deaths from prostate cancer. The small benefit, they concluded, was overshadowed by the odds of an incorrect diagnosis.
But the doctors surveyed by U.S. News disagreed. "If you argue that you should not use PSA testing at all in [men without symptoms], you're essentially saying you don't want to find prostate cancer at a curable stage," Dr. Samir S. Taneja, director of urologic cancer at NYU Langone Medical Center and a responder to the survey, told U.S. News.
Of the urologist who responded to the survey, about 95 percent said doctors should continue to advise men to begin screening at age 50.
To read the entire U.S. News & World Report, go here.