'prostate' posts

EDMONDS, WASH., Sept. 10, 2012 - Free screening tests for Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) and testosterone levels will be available at Swedish/Edmonds on Thursday, Sept. 20 from 6-8 p.m. Learn more about men’s health topics from local urologists presenting at the event. These physicians will also be available to personally answer questions in an informal setting throughout the event.

This week a large European consortium updated the data on a huge study on prostate cancer screening. The study included over 160,000 men in eight European countries followed for an average of 11 years. The men were randomly assigned to prostate cancer screening with the PSA blood test or no screening. The primary endpoint of the study was death from prostate cancer. The current report in the New England Journal of Medicine gave an additional two years of follow-up data over the prior reports.

As expected with longer follow-up, the benefits from screening have become more clear. The study now shows a 29% decrease in the number of men dying from prostate cancer in the screened group. This confirms the expected benefit for early detection.

This publication comes at a time of great controversy regarding prostate cancer screening here in the United States...