The New York Times has an excellent piece on the PSA research as well.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/health/24well.html
Here are a good highlight:
The European researchers found that P.S.A. screening does reduce the
risk of dying from prostate cancer by about 20 percent. But in terms
of individual risk, even that is not a huge benefit. It means that a
man who isn't screened has about a 3 percent average risk of dying
from prostate cancer. If that man undergoes annual P.S.A.
screenings, his risk drops to about 2.4 percent.And there is an
important tradeoff. P.S.A. testing increases a man's risk of being
treated for a cancer that would never have harmed him in the first
place. The European study found that for every man who was helped by
P.S.A. screening, at least 48 received unnecessary treatment that
increased risk for impotency and incontinence. Dr. Otis Brawley,
chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, summed up the
European data this way:* "The test is about 50 times more likely to
ruin your life than it is to save your life."*
Chris
--
Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada
416-736-2100 ex. 66164
[email protected]
http://www.yorku.ca/christo/
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