Illustration of prostate cancer

President Obama has declared that September be National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. Prostate cancer screening has been in the news of late amid concerns about over-diagnosing and treating prostate cancer.

In a new study published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute this week, one of the study’s authors, H. Gilbert Welch, MD, concluded that the incidence of prostate cancer since prostate specific antigen testing (PSA) is likely due to over-diagnosis and that subsequently, there  has been unnecessary treatment for it.

The problem with using PSA for screening purposes is that we don’t know if early detection of prostate cancer has actually saved lives. The fact is that prostate cancer can be so slow growing that the individual dies of another illness. Doctors fear that unnecessary surgery and chemotherapy may be occuring when watchful-waiting may be equally effective. This is because PSA can’t detect aggressive prostate cancer from more slow-growing prostate cancer.

So yes, it is helpful to increase awareness of prostate cancer but to assume that screening and early detection can actually decrease mortality has not been proven.