Over the past few months hospital support for community screening events has markedly deteriorated. The harsh truth of the overtreatment epidemic brought about through the indiscriminate application of mass screening can no longer be ignored, leaving the only reasoning for support of such events (outside of a research setting) being marketing for urology practices. BTW – a man can have this test administered by a primary care doctor, he just needs to ask for/insist to have it…

This turn of events is a striking wake-up call to just how backwards prostate cancer care is. It cries for diagnosis with little or no concern for what happens to a person after diagnosis. Men are often treated with little regard for other co-morbidities, despite how aggressive their cancer is or is not, and with discussion about the reality of treatment related side-effects being superficial at best.  Yet another reason to work with a primary care MD to assure any news of diagnosis is delivered alongside the seriousness of other co-morbidities and information about side-effects.

The problem is so strikingly pronounced that over 100,000 men have been unnecessarily treated every year resulting in billions in unnecessary medical expenses. Because nothing has been done about this, nothing to improve the quantity and quality of life for survivors, the public health powers that be do all they can to shut the door on PSA.

It is fundamentally tragic to see so many “advocates” throw in the towel, or dig in their heels in a desperate and irrational argument for maintaining the flow of men into a medical system that we know has monumental shortcomings. These pitfalls necessitate a level of self-awareness, ability to quickly understand complex prognostic data, and a calm cool mind to navigate the many trap doors in the world of prostate cancer care.

Discarding the PSA will result in men like my dad are discarded in the interest of preserving the quality of life of the masses. The “good of the many” so to speak… And in all of this, all that is really needed is a little compassion for those men who have been subjected to over treatment and now live with side-effects for no good reason – AND those men who will die of aggressive prostate cancer diagnosed too late…