DENVER, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Men who do not have yearly PSA tests are three times more likely to die from prostate cancer than those who undergo the annual screenings, new research has found.
PSA screening is one of the most controversial issues in oncology today. The American Cancer Society and the American Urological Association both recommend the annual screenings for men over 50, but the U.S. Public Service Task Force has not.
The simple blood test measures levels of PSA, or prostate-specific antigen, a protein produced by the prostate. Rising PSA levels are thought to be a sign of cancer.
The new study suggests that over a 10-year period, 11.3 percent of men who fail to have annual PSA screenings will die from the disease, compared with only 3.6 percent of those who do have yearly tests, researchers said.
The researchers studied 1,492 men who underwent surgery to remove a cancerous prostate gland between 1988 and 2002. Of the total, 841 men had annual PSA screens before their diagnoses.
"This simple yearly blood test would appear to discover prostate cancers when they are more curable and may lower the risk of dying from prostate cancer," said Dr. Jason Efstathiou, of the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program in Boston.
Efstathiou presented the findings at the annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, but admitted he does not expect the findings to end the debate over annual screens.
For that, "we really the results of three massive trials going on in the U.S. and Europe," he said. Those results are due in 2008.
Plus, "even if annual PSA testing does work and more cancer is detected, there is a cost issue," Efstathiou told United Press International.
Many doctors think the prostate cancers detected by PSA testing are so slow-growing they would be unlikely to cause disability or death. Instead, men are more likely to die from other conditions before the cancer becomes life-threatening.
That means subjecting such men to surgery to remove the cancerous prostate could do more harm than good, causing side effects such as impotence and urinary problems.
"That's not to mention the unnecessary anxiety and costs," Efstathiou said.
Dr. Theodore Lawrence, chairman of the board of ASTRO and chairman of radiation oncology at the University of Michigan School of Medicine in Ann Arbor, said many experts think the costs are not worth the number of deadly cancers detected by the annual screenings.
"We know PSA testing can detect early-stage prostate cancer, but whether annual tests save lives and are cost effective are still open questions," he said.
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Charlene Laino covers medical research for UPI. E-mail: [email protected]
