Oncology Journal Paper Finds PSA Testing Still Useful

A recent paper, published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a peer-reviewed medical journal published three times a month by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, states that prostate cancer experts have maintained that PSA testing is useful and that it reduces the risk for death. 

Prostate cancer screening has been a controversial topic ever since the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommended against routine prostate-specific antigen (PSA) based prostate cancer screening for healthy men, regardless of age, in 2012. 

Jonathan Shoag, M.D., from New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, and colleagues, argue that the evidence shows that PSA testing does reduce prostate cancer mortality, and they call for a return to screening.  They proposed that all men should undergo at least baseline PSA testing in their 40s or early 50s (except for individuals with a limited life expectancy).  Subsequent screening after that would be tailored to individualized risk according “to schedules put forth in newer screening guidelines.” 

“The rapid uptake of PSA screening followed by its equally rapid decline in the United States has been analogized to a pendulum swinging back and forth,” they comment.  They warn that “reversion back to the pre-PSA era in recent years will translate into more prostate cancer deaths in the United States.” 

SSM Health Cancer Care knows that early detection is one of the most important factors to surviving cancer.  Whether you have a family medical history, lifestyle, and other factors that indicate that you are at greater risk for cancer, or if you are in a low-risk group with no symptoms of the disease, regular screenings are critical to successfully diagnosing and treating cancer.  For information on free prostate cancer screenings offered by SSM Health, please click here. 

If you, or a loved one, has recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer, please contact St. Louis CyberKnife.  At St. Louis CyberKnife, men diagnosed with prostate cancer are treated with the CyberKnife® Robotic Radiosurgery System.  CyberKnife is a painless, nonsurgical prostate cancer treatment technology in which high-dose radiation is delivered to the tumor from a linear accelerator mounted on a highly maneuverable robotic arm.  Hundreds of different angles enable the radiation to be contoured to the shape of the prostate, resulting in treatment aimed directly to the prostate gland, avoiding nearby critical anatomy.  This precision reduces treatment time to just five outpatient visits, compared to the average 45 visits conventional radiation therapy requires.  Click here to learn more about how St. Louis CyberKnife treats prostate cancer today.