U.S. Panel Says No To Prostate Test For Healthy Men
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: October 7, 2011
Healthy men should no longer receive a P.S.A. blood test to screen for prostate cancer because the test does not save lives over all and often leads to more tests and treatments that needlessly cause pain, impotence and incontinence in many, a key government health panel has decided.
The draft recommendation, by the United States Preventive Services Task Force and due for official release next week, is based on the results of five well-controlled clinical trials and could substantially change the care given to men 50 and older. There are 44 million such men in the United States, and 33 million of them have already had a P.S.A. test -- sometimes without their knowledge -- during routine physicals.
The task force's recommendations are followed by most medical groups. Two years ago the task force recommended that women in their 40s should no longer get routine mammograms, setting off a firestorm of controversy. The recommendation to avoid the P.S.A. test is even more forceful and applies to healthy men of all ages.
''Unfortunately, the evidence now shows that this test does not save men's lives,'' said Dr. Virginia Moyer, a professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and chairwoman of the task force. ''This test cannot tell the difference between cancers that will and will not affect a man during his natural lifetime. We need to find one that does.''
But advocates for those with prostate cancer promised to fight the recommendation. Baseball's Joe Torre, the financier Michael Milken and Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, are among tens of thousands of men who believe a P.S.A. test saved their lives.
The task force can also expect resistance from some drug makers and doctors. Treating men with high P.S.A. levels has become a lucrative business. Some in Congress have criticized previous decisions by the task force as akin to rationing, although the task force does not consider cost in its recommendations.
''We're disappointed,'' said Thomas Kirk, of Us TOO, the nation's largest advocacy group for prostate cancer survivors. ''The bottom line is that this is the best test we have, and the answer can't be, 'Don't get tested.' ''
But that is exactly what the task force is recommending. There is no evidence that a digital rectal exam or ultrasound are effective, either. ''There are no reliable signs or symptoms of prostate cancer,'' said Dr. Timothy J. Wilt, a member of the task force and a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota. Frequency and urgency of urinating are poor indicators of disease, since the cause is often benign.
The P.S.A. test, routinely given to men 50 and older, measures a protein -- prostate-specific antigen -- that is released by prostate cells, and there is little doubt that it helps identify the presence of cancerous cells in the prostate. But a vast majority of men with such cells never suffer ill effects because their cancer is usually slow-growing. Even for men who do have fast-growing cancer, the P.S.A. test may not save them since there is no proven benefit to earlier treatment of such invasive disease.
As the P.S.A. test has grown in popularity, the devastating consequences of the biopsies and treatments that often flow from the test have become increasingly apparent. From 1986 through 2005, one million men received surgery, radiation therapy or both who would not have been treated without a P.S.A. test, according to the task force. Among them, at least 5,000 died soon after surgery and 10,000 to 70,000 suffered serious complications. Half had persistent blood in their semen, and 200,000 to 300,000 suffered impotence, incontinence or both. As a result of these complications, Richard J. Ablin, who in 1970 discovered a prostate-specific antigen, has called its widespread use a ''public health disaster.''
One in six men in the United States will eventually be found to have prostate cancer, making it the second most common form of cancer in men after skin cancer. An estimated 32,050 men died of prostate cancer last year and 217,730 men received the diagnosis. The disease is rare before age 50, and most deaths occur after age 75.
Not knowing what is going on with one's prostate may be the best course, since few men live happily with the knowledge that one of their organs is cancerous. Autopsy studies show that a third of men ages 40 to 60 have prostate cancer, a share that grows to three-fourths after age 85.
P.S.A. testing is most common in men over 70, and it is in that group that it is the most dangerous since such men usually have cancerous prostate cells but benefit the least from surgery and radiation. Some doctors treat patients who have high P.S.A. levels with drugs that block male hormones, although there is no convincing evidence that these drugs are helpful in localized prostate cancer and they often result in impotence, breast enlargement and hot flashes.
Of the trials conducted to assess the value of P.S.A. testing, the two largest were conducted in Europe and the United States. Both ''demonstrate that if any benefit does exist, it is very small after 10 years,'' according to the task force's draft recommendation statement.