Doubts Cast on Common Prostate Cancer Test

[Tombstone]

(HealthDayNews) -- A review of 20 years' worth of tissue samples casts doubt on the value of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing for prostate cancer, a new study contends.

In fact, the resulting treatments that often follow a worrisome PSA test result may do more harm than good, according to the study by Stanford University researchers.

"I have here in my laboratory a 20-year collection of thin sections that allow us to construct the extent of cancer in the prostate," said lead study author Dr. Thomas A. Stamey, a professor of urology at Stanford. "We can look at the relationship between PSA levels and the size of the cancer.

"In the first five-year period, there was a 60 percent relationship between the size of the cancer and the level of PSA. In the last five years, that has fallen to 2 percent, which is why we say the PSA era is over. We are no longer finding significant cancers by PSA screening," Stamey said.

http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/ ... 21170.html