Claims that PSA test is a lifesaver can be dangerously misleading
By now, you’ve certainly heard actor Ben Stiller’s great story about a blood test he credits with having saved his life.
And it sounds like he’s giving really good and simple advice: Get it done, and it just might save yours, too!
Only that’s not really the case.
Before you call you doctor’s office to schedule a PSA test for prostate cancer, you need to hear what experts are saying is the real story behind this test. And they include the man who discovered it in the first place.
Here’s a hint: The PSA test can put you on a collision course with disaster.
It’s been over a decade since I first told you how unreliable the PSA test is. And in that time, more and more experts have spoken out against it as well.
In an editorial that appeared in the same publication as Stiller’s tribute to the test, Dr. Otis Brawley, who’s the chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, says that Stiller’s story isn’t all that unique.
But not for the reasons you might think.
Numerous men will get a PSA test done, and some will eventually get prostate cancer, says Dr. Brawley.
And those who have been conscientiously getting tested will now believe that it saved their lives, he said. But that’s not necessarily the real story.
Because, as Dr. Brawley says (and I’ve said this many times), most men who go untreated — even those who go undiagnosed — will not die from prostate cancer.
“This is why no major health group recommends all men be screened,” Brawley says.
Sure, it’s easy enough to get a blood test, but if your numbers come back as high — well, you guys know what that means.
First, the PSA test is famous for giving false positives. It’s been found to be wrong 80 percent of the time!
And that’s not just an annoyance, but something that leads right into more testing, a biopsy and often surgery.
As Dr. Richard Albin has said, “it’s a cash cow.” And Dr. Ablin is the man who discovered the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) to begin with, so he certainly knows a thing or two about it!
But it’s more than just money. Much more.
First, as Dr. Ablin said, the “PSA test is not cancer-specific.” In other words, high PSA numbers are found in guys with prostate cancer and those who have perfectly healthy prostates! And for low PSA readings, that’s no guarantee, either!
Any way you look at it the PSA test is one of the most unreliable medical tests out there. And as many experts said after Stiller told his story, there is not a shred of evidence that the PSA test has saved one man’s life.
Not one.
But what we do know is that overtreatment, and certainly unnecessary treatments have ruined the lives of many men.
Dr. Brawley calls it a “massive problem of overtreatment.” One where we are “curing some men who do not need to be cured,” and causing “significant detriment” to their quality of life. And remember, Dr. Brawley is head medical officer of the positively mainstream American Cancer Society!
He went on to say that the “phenomenon (of) overdiagnosis,” which he explains as diagnosing a cancer that will never cause harm, happens in at least half of all prostate cancer patients.
And that’s consistent with what other researchers have found — that a low-grade, slow-growing prostate cancer won’t spread or cause you any problems.
That’s why, as I recently told you, “active surveillance” has been found to be the best way to go for most guys with early prostate cancer.
And that’s advice that may well end up saving the quality of your life.
Sources:
“Actor Ben Stiller adds to PSA drama” Nick Mulcahy” October 7, 2016, Medscape, medscape.com
