The New England Journal of Medicine wants your views on the PSA testing controversy.
Here are four perspectives on PSA testing — each with a poll.
- PSA Screening — What the USPSTF Left Out
- One Man at a Time — Resolving the PSA Controversy
- The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and Screening for Prostate Cancer
- Screening for Prostate Cancer
And don’t forget our commentary: “JunkScience.com right again: No prostate test for healthy men“.
For those who haven’t started their annual PSA test, understand that a single test showing an elevated count is not the determining factor in receiving a biopsy. There need to be three consecutive annual tests, each elevated above the last, before a biopsy is needed. Bicycle riding within 3 days of the test, sex prior to the test, infection, and the infamous “finger wave” all will cause a rise in PSA.
What did your doctors do after finding your elevated PSA? Perhaps this second step, given the huge proportion of false positives for PSA, should have been the standard first-level investigation.
If I did not have my PSA tested I would not have had the biopsy that found fast growing cancer. What is a healthy man? If you have heart disease you should get tested but if not you should not get tested?