Prostate Cancer Testing
Imagine you’re flying in a commercial jet and the pilot tells you he’ll be putting the aircraft on autopilot. That probably wouldn’t be a concern. But imagine you’re at your doctor’s office and he tells you that he’s just put his judgement on autopilot.
Two questions: Where’s the parachute, and where is the exit?
Unfortunately, doctors often simply go with basic procedures they’ve always used. But things change, and when doctors don’t stay on top of changes, patients sometimes suffer.
One perfect example of an autopilot medical mindset concerns the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test used to determine prostate cancer risk. I’ve shared this warning several times before, but the mainstream still hasn’t picked up on it so it can’t be repeated enough: Men, if your doctor suggests a biopsy based on a high PSA level, he may be flying on autopilot.
A new supplement study inadvertently demonstrates that a PSA reading should be considered a useful tool, as long as it’s viewed with healthy scepticism.
Putting on the brakes
PSA is a protein that’s naturally produced by the prostate gland. Prostate tumours typically cause an over-production of PSA, so when a blood test reveals an elevated level of the protein, it’s a red flag that warns of possible cancer.
Urology researchers in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, created a trial to examine the effect of certain nutrients on PSA levels.
As reported in the International Journal of Cancer, the Rotterdam team recruited 37 men who had prostate cancer and increasing PSA levels. For a period of six weeks, about half of the subjects supplemented their diets with a formula that contained antioxidants, green tea extract, soy extract, vitamin E, selenium and plant sterols. The other subjects took a placebo. In the second phase of the study, those taking the supplement switched to placebo for six additional weeks, while the first placebo group began taking the supplement.
Blood tests taken throughout the study showed that PSA continued to increase during the placebo phase, but the increase was significantly slowed during the supplement phase. Nevertheless, there was no indication that the nutrients had any effect on the cancer.
In an interview with Reuters Health, the lead author of the study, Dr Ries Kranse admitted that a change in PSA progression does not necessarily mean that tumour size is reduced. What this study does help confirm is that something as simple as a dietary change may cause fluctuations in PSA levels.
Time for caution
Alternative healthcare pioneer, US physician, Dr William Campbell Douglass is no fan of PSA tests or their follow-up biopsies. Dr. Douglass refers to this one-two punch as, “the mainstream’s slash-and-burn approach to prostate cancer.”
A 2003 editorial in the British Medical Journal put it another way:
“At present the one certainty about PSA testing is that it causes harm.”
It’s not the test itself that causes harm, of course, it’s the reaction to the test. When PSA is elevated, many doctors recommend a biopsy of the prostate; a painful procedure that can result in bleeding and infection. But recent evidence shows that a great number of these biopsies are completely unnecessary.
In a study from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York City, US researchers examined fluctuations in PSA levels to test the reliability of a single PSA result.
Over a 4-year period, the Sloan-Kettering team collected five blood samples each from nearly 1,000 men whose median age was 62 years. More than 20 percent of the subjects were found to have PSA levels high enough that many doctors would have recommended a biopsy. Half of those men, however, had follow-up tests with normal PSA levels.
The Sloan-Kettering team concluded that an isolated PSA screening with an elevated level should be followed with an additional screening several weeks later before proceeding with further testing or a biopsy.
This research backs up another study I told you about in a previous e-alert in which doctors at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre (FHCRC) in the US estimated that PSA screening may result in an over-diagnosis rate of more than 40 percent.
Fibre option
Although the Rotterdam research didn’t show that supplements slow the progression of prostate cancer, other tests have indicated that certain foods may offer protection against the disease.
In a post I wrote recently, I looked at an Italian study that surveyed the dietary habits of more than 1,700 middle-aged and elderly men. Researchers found that a high intake of any type of fibre reduced prostate cancer risk slightly. Soluble fibre intake appeared to offer some protection, but when fruit, vegetable and grain fibre intakes were compared, vegetable fibre was associated with the lowest risk.
But was fibre responsible for the prevention, or was it the lifestyle? As one researcher noted, those who choose to include generous amounts of vegetables in their diets may be more likely to incorporate other healthy habits in their daily routines
That sounds like a pretty good plan for prostate cancer prevention.
Addendum: Deatails of a real life experience are here: Alternative Medicine
[...] Read more: Prostate Cancer Testing | The Franco Files [...]
I hope your life is never threatened by Prostate cancer, but if it is you will be thankful for PSA testing and appropriate biopsy (yes — don’t rush out for it, get another PSA test first). You will hopefully find, like the large majority of men biopsied that it’s pretty innocuous and side effects are quite small. Stick with MSKCC — they won’t steer you wrong.
I disagree with the above remark. I think in these tough economic times we need to rethink our old ways of thinking. For more information visit http://www.alaskapersonalinjurylawyer.net
Making sure you get yourself tested early in your life is the best way to prevent this horrible disease.
If you ever want to hear a reader’s feedback
, I rate this post for 4/5. Decent info, but I just have to go to that damn yahoo to find the missed parts. Thanks, anyway!
Prostate cancer is a terrible thing to experience. I agree though, if a doctor suggests a biopsy always get a second opinion first.
Prostate cancer is a very scary thing. My husband refuses to go and get checked because he fears the intrusive manner in which the test is performed. Thankfully there is no history of cancer in his family and he leads a life incorporating healthy habits such as eating plenty of high fiber foods, vegetables and fruits, and a low fat diet. In addition he exercises three times per week. Hopefully these healthy habits will lead to prevention of any type of cancer.
To add to the information in the article, here is some uncomfortable piece of data:
A decade-long study following more than 75,000 men found that
prostate cancer screenings led to more diagnoses but did not reduce the number of deaths from the illness.
The National Cancer Institute’s findings, which are published online in the New England Journal of Medicine, challenge the popular idea that routine screenings reduce cancer-caused deaths.
Influential medical organizations such as the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute do not recommend annual prostate-specific antigen testing (PSA), in which the doctor takes blood samples and measures the protein found in the prostate gland.
.-= Mike @ Prostate Health Supplements´s last blog ..Alternative Prostate Treatment =-.
Here’s another piece of related information:
Regular screening for prostate cancer may prevent the deaths of a small number of men but exposes many more to potentially needless treatments accompanied by serious complications, according to two landmark studies that fail to settle a long-running debate about the value of screening.
Prostate cancer tends to be slow-growing, and doctors lack molecular markers that could easily distinguish the relatively small number of killer tumors from those likely to remain harmless – what one specialist called “toothless tigers.” As a result, the calculus of screening has remained murky even as it has proliferated, with an estimated 25 million PSA tests performed annually.
The US study concluded that after following men for a decade, those screened annually with the PSA or a rectal exam were no more likely to avoid death from prostate cancer than those tested less frequently or not at all.
Men are 50 times more likely to receive unnecessary treatment than to be the one who avoided the prostate cancer death. And those treatments can leave a man impotent or incontinent without any guarantee that a tiny tumor lodged in the prostate would ever have threatened his life.
.-= Mike @ Prostate Health Supplements´s last blog ..Alternative Prostate Treatment =-.
It is undeniable that in the past too many men over-reacted and got unnecessary treatment. However, it’s also clear that the data provided by PSA testing (including PSA velocity, free PSA, etc) and biopsy if indicated can be used as a reliable indicator of where one’s cancer is headed. This is the only logical way to go if one wishes to avoid the ugly effects of invasive prostate cancer, and once the cancer leaves the prostate there is no stopping it, whereas if treatment of capsule enclosed cancer can be extremely effective. Read the NCCN and AUA reports and recommendations and you will find that things have progressed far beyond any of the mass studies of a decade ago which are just being published now. Don’t be an ostrich and stick your head in the sand, or play Russian roulette with your prostate. Learn what you can, find good Dr’s, and take charge of your life — you are not a number in a mass study but rather and individual who can only benefit from PSA testing and sober analysis of it’s results.
Thank you for sharing this info. I think it is important to do tests regularly but I would rather think of how to prevent cancer instead of living in fear that it can happen one day. I think the diet can not only affect PSA levels but cancer progression as well.
.-= Yulia @ Tea for Cancer´s last blog ..About Us =-.
PSA test has one of the highest false-positive rates of any medical test used today. It’s bad business. It is very common to score high on the PSA but show no trace of cancer when subjected to a biopsy, and vice versa.
In one of the latest trials, in 78% of the cases, PSA results of men with prostate cancer are negative, assuring those men that they do not have prostate cancer. By failing to detect it, the PSA falsely classifies them as healthy. Consequently, they take no action to protect their prostates, allowing the disease to progress unchecked.
Worse, when you examine correct cancer diagnosis by the PSA, the rate of detection is just over 20%. So, for every one hundred cases of real prostate cancer, the PSA detects only about 20. And, from the study above, for each one of these 20 it also falsely detects a non-existent cancer in a healthy man. Imagine the effect on your life if you were one of those men falsely predicted by the PSA to be suffering from cancer.
In sum, the PSA predicts as many non-existent cancers as it does real cancers, and misses most of the real cancers anyway.
More on this in my blog.
.-= Mike @ Prostate Health Supplements´s last blog ..That Pesky PSA =-.
I am all in favor of alternative medicine if it helps. Let’s have some data — controlled massive studies that show which alternative approaches help. Numbers and statistics please.
I pray to god that no one has to suffer from this disease. Thanks to the medical science that it has come up with new inventions for human society. Thanks for this informative post and hope many patients can get benefit of it.
Well as they say, “prevention is better than cure”. I hope nobody gets prostate cancer. Regular yearly body checkups should be done. Also if one gets it, he should not go for biopsy before consulting atleast 3 different doctors.
One of the things that has been noticed about mind body medicine is that a medical exam, such as the PSA in this case, is focused on finding something wrong …. and in terms of the Law of Attraction, we get what we focus upon … like the observer effect in quantum physics bringing a ‘potential’ into solid being.
Good diet and healthy lifestyle is focusd on health and this in itself may have an effect on inceasing the chances of living without cancer
.-= KansaKare@prostate cancer care´s last blog ..Advice On How You Can Save A Lot of Money On Your Prescription Drugs =-.
I must say to all the people who are saying just prevent it. Ok we all try to live healthy (some more than others) but to think that we can just prevent cancer or other health issues is foolish. Things happen for a variety of reasons, bad habits in the past, genetic issues, environment. Walking an extra ten minutes a day will not change these things. Testing is important for all medical issues, but medicine has turned way to much into a money machine. A lot of hospitals use these screenings as a way to make money. Proper medical care is important, but you need to take charge of it as well and not do excessive screening or agree to treatments that may not be right for you.
Sorry for ranting so much, I just recently went through some relatively serious medical issues myself.
Mes Amis, bonjour and thank you all for your observations and comments.
I think this last comment by Adam touches a big part of the problem. There doesn’t seem to be any balance in our, so called, civilized society; especially when it comes to health care.
Not that long ago people turned to the local physician who was practicing their skills and learning how to help people. Today, with such a plethora of new and constantly improving procedures, drugs, etc. it must be impossible for the average practitioner to keep abreast. Consequently, the physician must take advice – much of which comes from the big pharmaceutical companies, i.e. money.
A bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
At the end of the day, I think the individual must make decisions based upon the own informed judgements, rather than simply abrogate the responsibility to another.
Thank you for this blog post. The commenter, then, becomes the critic who shapes the writer’s next content. So I want to encourage you to keep on blogging in the same style as you writing style is really perfect.