Urological group pushes PSA screenings

May. 13th, 2009 by Andrew Van Dam
Filed under: Conflicts of interest, Hot Health Headline 

The Cancer Letter’s Paul Goldberg reports that the American Urological Association released a list of best practices that included beginning prostate screening at age 40 (see page 3 of this PDF for the announcement).

It came, Goldberg reports, “Less than a month after the New England Journal of Medicine published trial results that point to overdiagnosis and low or no benefit from screening men over the age of 50.” The American Cancer Society says it “does not support routine testing for prostate cancer in men at average risk at this time.”

Meanwhile, Cancerwise’s Julie Penne looked at the American Urological Association’s partnership with the NFL and a Houston event at which partnering doctors screened 37 men between the ages of 31 and 77.”

Recently, M. D. Anderson and the American Urological Association (AUA) teamed up to screen 37 NFL retirees from the Houston area as part of a 10-city series that the NFL Player Care Foundation initiated to address the medical needs of retired players. The M. D. Anderson screening… was the seventh site in the year-long tour that has held screening events in Kansas City, Atlanta, Dallas, Tampa Bay, Washington, D.C., and Canton, Ohio, the home of the NFL Hall of Fame.

Other than a UPI story and the aforementioned blog post, the initiative doesn’t seem to have attracted much attention, though University of Minnesota professor and AHCJ member Gary Schwitzer posted his reaction. Unfortunately, overshadowed by H1N1, the AUA’s new guidelines and the controversy surrounding them have gotten little attention as well. The Los Angeles Times‘ Shari Roan offers a roundup of the issues.

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Comments

One Comment on Urological group pushes PSA screenings

  1. Gary Schwitzer on Wed, 13th May 2009 12:09 pm

    2. AP reported the AUA PSA story on April 27, and we reviewed their story on http://www.HealthNewsReview.org.

    http://www.healthnewsreview.org/review/review.php?rid=1978

    Excerpt of that review:

    “The story was unclear about the extent to which men would stand to benefit or be harmed from PSA testing.

    A strength was that it included perspectives from NIH’s Dr. Barry Kramer – that there is no proof that a baseline test will save lives. And from the American Cancer Society’s Dr. Otis Brawley - “I am very concerned that the urology community and the American public may think there’s more value in PSA than there actually is.”

    But a weakness is that the story kept going back to the well of quotes of people who promote SOME screening……

    * Doing a baseline test “makes a lot of sense to me”

    * “If you’ve got a PSA of less than one in your initial screen, you can wait to get another PSA for five years”

    * “Everybody has to get screened at least at some baseline”

    …..without ever talking about NO screening as a legitimate option.

    That’s a big failing – because the story failed to connect the dots to show that the AUA’s new recommendation is still out of line with other groups, including the US Preventive Services Task Force which states:

    * The current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of prostate cancer screening in men younger than age 75 years.

    * The USPSTF recommends against screening for prostate cancer in men age 75 years or older.”

    Gary Schwitzer
    Associate Professor
    University of Minnesota School of Journalism & Mass Communication
    Publisher, HealthNewsReview.org

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