29000 Men Comment
My thanks to Dr. Dach for commenting on my post concerning the PSA testing controversy, and I encourage everyone to read his excellent article at http://www.jeffreydach.com/2009/10/01/psa-testing-the-failed-medical-experiment-by-jeffrey-dach-md.aspx.
Dr. Dach concludes his article as follows:
"In conclusion, PSA screening for prostate cancer has been a failed medical experiment leaving behind 1 million male victims treated unnecessarily for a type of prostate cancer that was clinically insignificant, providing little or no benefit in terms of lives saved. Leaders in the field are now alerting us to the pitfalls, harms and limitations involved in PSA cancer screening.
Recognizing that there are 30,000 prostate cancer deaths per year, the urgent challenge is to identify and treat the aggressive cancers destined to kill the host, and avoid harming the other 7 million men representing a silent reservoir of biologically insignificant disease. Hopefully, this will be the subject of future NIH funded research, so that another one million men in the future will be spared needless overdiagnosis and overtreatment."
29000 Men Comment
As a prostate cancer survivor who is alive today because of PSA and Free PSA testing and a determined urologist, it is my deeply held opinion [please note that I am not a physician and can not and do not offer medical advice] that the issue is not with too much diagnosis, as approximately 29,000 men continue to die each year from prostate cancer, but with the treatment decisions made following diagnosis. If the current controversy is successful in convincing men that prostate cancer testing is unnecessary and that men that to do seek treatment are destined to have quality of life degradation, will we not in the future see an increase in prostate cancer deaths? I look forward to a lively discussion on this important issue.
September Prostatepedia
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In September, Prostatepedia is talking about erectile dysfunction after
treatment with Drs. Mohit Khera, John Mulhall, Arthur Burnett, and
Jean-Francois ...
7 years ago
I've responded to a number of anti PSA papers and admit, they've warn me down. Dach gives himself away at the start with his anecdote about Jim. Obviously Jim didn't need a biopsy and a credible urologist would not have given him one on the spot. Dach did the right thing for Jim but after that his article is completely one sided. i just know too many many men with prostectomies like mine still walking around and leading satisfying productive lives to buy the no PSA line.
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