Prostate Screening Rejected As A Routine Test

Looking after our own health is one of the essential life lessons we learn while our parents are raising us. In its basic form, this will cover healthy eating and a sensible level of exercise accompanied by regular 'mots' with a GP. Once into adulthood we then have the option of taking out health insurance for extra reassurance in the event of a major health issue. We soon learn to pick up on news and reports and advice on what is good for us and what isn't, what to look out for at certain ages and how genetics affect us.

Regular self examinations and awareness of what's going on with our own bodies are vital to picking up on any early warning signs that something isn't quite right. For many men, one of their biggest health fears is prostate cancerand this worry increases with age. This is a common cancer among men, amounting to a quarter of all diagnosed cancers, and sixty percent of these cases will occur in men over the age of 70, according to Cancer Research.

Prostate cancer statistics show that there has been a threefold increase in the incidents of diagnosis of this disease over the last thirty years, but this is thought to be down to better screening through the use of the PSA test, rather than simply more cases. The good news is that during that time, survival rates have increased from three in ten to seven in ten, probably due again to better and earlier diagnosis.

Risk factors for prostate cancer include being in the over fifty age bracket, an immediate relative with the disease and West African or Caribbean men. However, the biggest cause by far is ignoring symptoms.
The prostate gland is situated at the base of the bladder, surrounding the upper part of the urethra.

Prostate cancer will cause the gland to enlarge and this will result in a change of frequency in urinating and/or difficulty urinating, occasionally with blood in the urine also. This is the time when medical intervention should be sought. Without it, spread of the cancer is highly likely.

Research has recently been conducted into whether a widespread screening programme would be worthwhile. The research was carried out by the European Randomised Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer with the results being published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

It has been suggested that routine screening for those over the age of fifty - just as is done for breast cancer in women - should be standard. However, the government continue to reject such a scheme due to the fact that it cannot be anywhere near as accurate as it needs to be. The PSA blood test is the first step to diagnosis. It measures the levels of prostate specific antigen in the patient. These levels will be higher in men with enlarged prostates due to cancer or benign disorders.

However, the test does not determine whether the cancer is benign or not and where the screening has been carried out, it has led to 'over diagnosis'. This means that men have had to endure treatment for a disease that could well have been slow growing with no threat to their lives or that the men themselves had a short life expectancy due to their age at the time of testing.

Unlike the screening for breast cancer, the PSA test is not fool proof which means that health services are unwilling to enforce it. The tests are available on request and are usually a good start for those who already have symptoms. This will then lead to further investigations, either on the NHS or through the support of private health insurance and the appropriate treatment.

Seed Newsvine

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