Thursday, April 18, 2013

Testing younger men for prostate cancer could lower deaths by not exactly HALF - Daily Mail

UPDATED: 05:39 EST, 17 April 2013 Offering tests to men within their late forties could reduce prostate cancer deaths by half, say experts. Prostate specific antigen (PSA) screening is employed to detect prostate cancer, but remains controversial, because it became popular long before there is considerable evidence to prove its worth. It can also be unreliable, giving false excellent results which can cause anxiety and end up in unnecessary treatment. Prostate cancer can be quite a source of anxiety for middle aged and older men As yet, the most up-to-date study found that prostate cancer screeningA decreased deaths by 20 per cent. But, with this came a high rates of unwanted therapy. Data indicated that to save lots of one life, almost 50 cases would have to be treated. In 2010, once the UK National Screening Committee in England last analyzed medical data, it decided that the national screening program shouldn't be introduced. Nevertheless now Swedish analysis, published in the BMJ, has discovered that if testing was wanted to males aged between 45 and 49, it'd predict nearly 50% of all cases. Analysts examined a report carried out between 1984 and 1974 concerning 21,277 Swedish males aged between 27 and 52. All the men had given blood samples at the start of the analysis. The researchers used these stored examples to perform PSA tests. Research indicates that screening males aged between 49 and 45 for prostate cancer (made) can save many lives They then checked to see if the PSA reading predicted whether or not they developed prostate cancer. These results were then used by the researchers to work out the very best age where men should be tested. They discovered that testing underneath the age of 45 found too few deadly cancers. Prostate cancer may be the most common cancer in men in the united kingdom A lot more than 40,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Symptoms include a difficulty passing urine, a need to frequently pass urine or having to rush to the toilet. PSA is just a protein produced by both normal and cancerous prostate cells But a high level of PSA could be a indication of cancer A PSA reading higher than four, but less than 10 is normally as a result of harmless enlarged prostate A reading higher than 10 may also just be a a symptoms of benign prostate disease The higher the degree of PSA, the more likely it's to be cancer And delaying assessment until after age 50 missed too many. Testing between the ages of 45 and 49 noticed 44 per cent of the cancers that turned fatal. In the analysis, 1,369 of the guys had prostate cancer, 241 had advanced disease and 162 died as a result. The research stated that all men ought to be provided a PSA test in their mid-to-late 40s. They advised that those with a high PSA reading must return for treatment, assessments and surveillance if necessary. Individuals with normal results could wait another five to a decade because of their next PSA test. The study said: aAt least half all men can be identified as staying at low risk and probably need only three PSA checks in a lifetime.' 'This is likely to reduce the chance of overdiagnosis while still permitting early cancer detection among those most likely to gain from early diagnosis,' they say. Public Health England review data for testing every three years to make sure that the programs provided by the NHS are derived from the absolute most up-to-date information available. Prostate Cancer UK said more research efforts ought to be directed into locating a greater screening test for the condition.

Link: Health Highlights: April 17, 2013

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