The Screening Would Prevent 20% of Prostate Cancer Mortality
A European study, the world's largest to date, found that measuring the levels of PSA (prostate specific antigen) in a systematic way all the men of 50-70 years would reduce mortality by 20% for prostate cancer.
This was stated by Antonio Berenguer, Head of Service of San Chinarro Madrid hospital and coordinator of this European study, whose findings appear in the latest issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
However, population screening is also a 50% overdiagnosis (false positives) that can lead to unnecessary tests and treatments.
In the study involving more than 180,000 men over 50 years. Their results contrast with those of another study NEJM also published by the National Institutes of Health in the United States with 76,000 men. Concludes that are just as deaths from cancer among those who take the test and those who do not.
Polemic
The screening would avoid 20% of deaths from prostate cancer
With data in hand, those responsible for both jobs are not positioned at the time of settling the controversy over the effectiveness of mass screening for prostate cancer in men, as is done with breast cancer in women over 50 years . Applied by any European country because it is not clear that increases survival, says Josep Maria Borras, head of Oncology Master Plan of the Generalitat of Catalonia. It adds that public health has long been awaiting the results of these two studies, but still not clear the balance of risks and benefits. “We must review, see why they are divergent and assess the risk of overdiagnosis”.
The practice of PSA when no symptoms of suspicion has been criticized “for its high sensitivity and low specificity,” said Berenguer. 75% of biopsies turn out to be practiced innecesarias.Los scientists seek more precise markers, because detecting the disease before, reduces the risk of metastasis. Over-diagnosis is also very aggressive treatments to apply on very slow evolution tumors that appear in old age (30% of cases). Many end up dying from other causes. Treatment side effects worsen the quality of life in old age.
