The following statement about the recent controversy regarding PSA esting was issued this morning by the thirteen organizations, including Malecare (the sponsor of this blog), listed at the bottom of the statement:
A JOINT STATEMENT FROM AMERICA’S PROSTATE CANCER ADVOCACY, EDUCATION, AND SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS
Since 1993, when the PLCO trial was started, we have awaited the results of this trial with eager anticipation, as have others. The initial report of the results of this study — and those of a comparable European trial — published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine have told us two things:
* The studies offer conflicting evidence about the possibility of a prostate cancer-specific survival benefit associated with the regular use of prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing and digital rectal examination (DRE).
* These studies provide no convincing evidence that mass screening of men over 50 or 55 years of age will lead to a prostate cancer-specific survival benefit within 10 years.
We have come together to make two clear statements about these trials:
* Above all we thank the patients, the investigators, and the national authorities that funded these two trials for their efforts. The
development and implementation of these trials over the past 16 years has been an enormous commitment by all concerned.
* We enthusiastically support the continued follow-up of patients in the prostate cancer arm of the PLCO study for at least a further 5 years, through 2014, as originally envisaged.
In addition, in the long-term interests of the health of every man in the USA, and with health reform recognized as a national priority, we wish to state the following:
* Every man, regardless of his age, has the right to know whether he is at risk from prostate cancer, a disease that still kills over 28,600
American men every year, and many more around the world. We encourage all men to be proactive, and to seek out information and support in regard to their health.
* We shall continue to encourage every man to discuss his individual risk for prostate cancer with his doctors, and to request the appropriate use of PSA and DRE tests until better options are
available. Further clinical action based on results of these tests is also a matter for serious discussion between each patient and his physicians.
* We call upon the federal government to emphasize the need for more research into early detection technologies and methods that will lead to better and more accurate diagnosis of prostate cancer.
* We call upon Congress to increase funding for the Prostate Cancer Research Program at the Department of Defense.
* We call upon the National Institutes of Health to increase funding for prostate cancer research through the National Cancer Institute.
* We call upon the medical research community to place greater emphasis on the development of new clinical tests that can differentiate between those men at greatest need for aggressive prostate cancer treatment and those with indolent forms of the
disease who can be well managed without invasive treatment.
The statement above was approved by the following US-based prostate cancer advocacy, education, and support organizations:
* American Urological Association Foundation
* Malecare Prostate Cancer Support
* Men’s Health Network
* National Alliance of State Prostate Cancer
Coalitions
* Prostate Cancer Foundation
* Prostate Cancer International
* Prostate Cancer Mission
* Prostate Conditions Education Council
* Prostate Health Education Network
* The Prostate Net
* US Too International
* Virginia Prostate Cancer Coalition
* Women Against Prostate Cancer
* ZERO — The Project to End Prostate Cancer
It is imperative that the medical professionals introduce screening for Prostate cancer. I, like many men knew ‘something’ about Prostate cancer (having to urinate during the night – Nocturia) but the way that my cancer was finally diagnosed as left me feeling like a fool. Not only do I face an early death, but the way in which the cancer was allowed to develope into an advanced state before discovery, is nothing short of criminal. At 67 years of age, I went to the local doctors surgery in Plymouth (UK) in April, 2008, with an unusual pain in my right rib-cage. I was sent for an x-ray. The pain increased only to subside and disappear – down into my right hip. I saw a second doctor in the same surgery with deep pain now which was moving also into the Lower Back I was prescribed 100 – Paracetamal tablets (the cancer was entering my skeleton – damaging the nerves). I saw a third doctor in the same practice now that the intense pain had travelled to my left hip. he gave me a further – 100 Paracetamal tablets. In agony I contacted the Pain Control Clinic in the local hospital: “You will have to come to us through your – doctor (this was in November, 2008) and it will take 4 – 8 weeks to be seen by the clinic. I did not, never had, the symptom of Nocturia just intence travelling pain with pins & needles travelling down into the lower legs. The fourth doctor, at the same surgery immediately ( I gave him the same symptoms I had given the two previous doctors) and he immediately sent me for a PSA blood test – too late – for me.
Two doctors did not quiz me about the symproms that I had – “just keep taking the tablest”. Had there been a PSA screening facility in place in 2008, I would not be in the diabolical situation that I now find myself in.
On the 22 November, 2008 I was a very active, rock climber, mountaineer (professional) with a large motorcycle in the garage today, on the 6 June, 2009, I can hardley climb the stairs. Everything has been ruined for the want of a Prostate screening facility. I looked after, cared for my severely disable son for 31 years until 2004, the next twenty years were to have been for me and the first time in my life I go to the doctors with something serious and there is nobody there to care for me – until it was too late. How many men have died prematurely in the same circumstances? When are health ‘services’ going to get their Statutory Act together before men ‘who have reached retirement’ are going to stop dying needlessly; have their last years ruined completely?