Over Treatment due to PSA

[Guest guest]

Here is a story that appeared in many papers today:

http://www.kmbc.com/health/15289407/detail.html

The story says that a vast number of men are being

over treated for prostate cancer, that many of the

treatments are unnecessary.

This story was in my local paper today. They mentioned

Dr. Otis Brawley. I have met him and talked with him

several times at conferences. He is dead set against the

PSA test. This is very strange since he is an African-

American which makes him more at risk than most men.

We all know that the PSA test is not perfect. But at the

present time, it is the best test that we have for any

cancer.

They do have a point. At a conference in September in

Los Angeles, they reported that up to 48% of the men who

had prostate cancer therapies that were unnecessary. The

problem is that it is not possible to determine just which of

those men have the disease that will kill them and which

ones have a disease that will never cause any harm.

At the recent conference in Vail, several papers were

presented about newer tests which are more specific

and accurate. They are developing genetic tests

which may be much better than any test we have

today. One test which seems to be very good is the

PCS3 test which is done using the patient's urine.

Here is a quote from the study:

"Only 10 percent of the 9,000 men in the study who chose

to delay or skip treatment had died of prostate cancer a

decade later."

That means that 900 men died who chose not to have

therapy. That could have been a relative or friend who

may have survived with treatment. They seem to think

that those 900 men were not worth saving.

I wish you all the bestAubrey Pilgrim, DC (Ret.) Author ofA Revolutionary Approach to Prostate Cancer-Read the original book for FREE at: http://www.prostatepointers.org/prostate/lay/apilgrim/Read new edition for FREE at http://www.cancer.prostate-help.org/capilgr.htmDr. E. Crawford is co-author of the revisionThe year's hottest artists on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards. AOL Music takes you there.