Prostate Screening Stats

PSA screening helped reduce prostate cancer mortality by nearly 50 percent.
Bloomberg News (6/30, Hallam) reported, "Prostate-cancer screening has been controversial because the tests can detect cancers that don't threaten the patients' health, resulting in unnecessary treatment that can impair quality of life." Although conflicting schools of thought continue to exist, researchers in Sweden are now saying that a "blood test for prostate cancer helped reduce deaths from the disease by almost 50 percent." In fact, the authors of the Lancet Oncology paper maintain that the "prostate-cancer tests reduced deaths from the disease more than comparable screening has done for breast cancer and colorectal cancer." One urologist who was not involved in the study said, "Most of us feel better overtreating than undertreating," and "this study supports that approach."