New Report Questions Value Of PSA Screenings For Prostate Cancer

(file photo: Getty Images)

By Lynne Adkins

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A report in the Annals of Internal Medicine questions the value of PSA screening for prostate cancer, but one local expert says that?s not the entire story.

This is not the first report or panel to question the value of the PSA blood test as many prostate cancers are slow-growing and the treatment could be worse than the disease.

Dr. Adam Dicker, a radiation oncologist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, generally agrees, except in the case of African-Americans, who statistically are at higher risk for developing and dying of the disease.

?That?s a high risk population and screenings should absolutely be done and in general we think, at least the aficionados in the field think that it should be done probably a decade early, maybe at age 40.?

The PSA blood test was approved by the FDA as a screening tool in 1994.

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