Month: May 2012

An expert panel has stuck with its controversial advice that most older men should not get routine screening for prostate cancer. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said last fall that prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening does more harm than good. A high test reading can indicate prostate cancer. But PSA can go up for other reasons. Only a biopsy can tell if cancer exists. Some prostate cancers can be deadly. But most grow so slowly they never cause harm. Men who get treated may have problems with sexual function and urine control. Urologists, who treat men with prostate cancer, protested the task force’s statement last fall. But the panel was not persuaded. The advice issued May 21 said that there’s little or no evidence that routine PSA tests save lives. The task force said men should be able to get a test if they want one.

Heavy current and past smokers ages 55 to 74 should get yearly lung CT scans, according to new guidelines from several major medical groups. A panel of cancer and chest experts reviewed the results of past studies. One study, the National Lung Screening Trial, found that yearly low-dose CT scans could reduce deaths from lung cancer by 20%. Heavy smokers are people who have smoked a pack of cigarettes a day or more for 30 years. About 160,000 people will die of lung cancer in 2012 in the United States. Testing comes with risks, said the experts. These include side effects from radiation and more tests. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the new guidelines online May 20. HealthDay News and the Associated Press wrote about them May 21.