Consistent PSA Screening Results In Better Prognosis

�Recently, PSA or prostate-specific antigen, screening made headlines when a US Preventive Task Force recommended that men over the years 75 lay off screening for prostate crab. While at that place is presently no definitive data regarding improvement in survival from screening for prostate crab using the PSA test, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) experience now shown that manpower who had been screened for a longer period of time using PSA tests were less likely to have adverse features of prostate gland cancer at the time of diagnosing. These results are promulgated in the August 15, 2008 issue of Cancer.


"While we are awaiting the results from big clinical trials, this information can be helpful to doctors and patients alike who are looking for circumstantial evidence regarding the role of PSA screening," said Neil Martin, MD, a investigator and dr. in Radiation Oncology at BWH. "This research behind be added to the body of literature suggesting that screening may cut prostate malignant neoplastic disease deaths."


Researchers evaluated more than 1,000 manpower who had been screened for prostate cancer and compared them based on treatment dates. Treatment in the form of radical prostatectomy occurred either before 1995, 'tween 1995 and 1998 or after 1998. Martin and colleagues compared the change in PSA scores - or the PSA speed which is of known prognostic time value - for each radical. They base that manpower who had their PSA tested routinely over longer periods of time were less likely to have adverse features associated with their prostate cancer when compared to men wHO had less screening. Researchers also reputation that all over the time period in which the PSA test was usable, fewer workforce were diagnosed with prostate gland cancer that had adverse features.


"While the US Preventive Task Force recommends against screening for elder men, these results - and other published studies - show that PSA screening whitethorn be an effective peter in reducing the number of prostate cancer deaths," said Anthony D'Amico, head of Genitourinary Radiation Oncology at BWH and senior author of the