09
Mar 2018
Study suggests routine prostate cancer tests can do more harm than good
Research funded by Cancer Research UK alongside the Department of Health has suggested that routine tests for prostate cancer do not save lives and can do more harm than good to patients.
The trial looked into the effectiveness of PSA (prostate specific antigen) tests, which are available to all men over the age of 50, and involved over 400,000 men. The research suggested that testing men without symptoms could detect some disease that would be unlikely to be of harm and potentially miss others which could be fatal.
Cancer Research UK’s GP expert Dr Richard Roope, said “This highlights the flaws of a single PSA test as a way to screen for prostate cancer, and shows the need to find more accurate ways to diagnose cancers that need to be treated.
“The PSA test is a blunt tool missing the subtleties of the disease and causing men harm.
“This trial illustrates that we need to develop more accurate tools if we want to save men’s lives.”
Lead author of the research Professor Richard Martin, said “Our large study has shed light on a highly debated issue. We found that offering a single PSA test to men with no symptoms of prostate cancer does not save lives after an average follow-up of 10 years.
“the results highlight the multitude of issues the PSA test raises – causing unnecessary anxiety and treatment by diagnosing prostate cancer in men who would never have been affected by it and failing to detect dangerous prostate cancers.”
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Posted by Karen Motley, Paralegal, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (karenmotley@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
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