The American Cancer Society & Prostate Cancer

A bit if deja vu - this time guys, it's us.

Last year the US Surgeon General made a statement regarding a change in policy about mammograms in the detection of breast cancer.  A statement that caused an uproar around the country after decades of trying to convince women that mammograms should be done regularly.

Now, the American Cancer Society has decided that men and prostate cancer were this year's target citing inconsistencies in accurate & early detection and improper treatment.

Pints for Prostates founder, and prostate cancer survivor, Rick Lyke posted a response to this announcement on the Pints for Prostates blog. Read it HERE.

Personally, as a prostate cancer patient who's cancer was initially indicated by the use of the simple PSA blood test, I find this statement by the ACS appauling.  Yes, as I have said many times before on this blog, there a numerous causes for an elevated PSA result leading to possible false positives.  But the PSA test is not the only defining factor in determining a prostate cancer diagnosis - just the initial red flag. No doctor ever decides to operate soley on a PSA test result.

An elevated PSA typically prompts a visit to a urologist who will discuss many possible factors in the result of the elevated PSA, including a relatively simple infection called "prostititis"  which can usually be treated with a two to three week course of antibiotics. But the investigation doesn't stop there. The doctor will perform a DRE (digital rectal exam) to determine if there is an indication of an enlarged, uneven, or possibly hardened prostate gland.  If this is found to be the case, a biopsy is performed, and you go on from there.

For I and many other prostate cancer patients I have met over the last 7 months since my diagnosis - it was our PSA test put us on this road to recovery and saving our lives.  These men ranged in age from 42 to 78.

While the community of men, their wives and family that face and live with the diagnosis are thankful it was caught because of a simple test - and are pressing for earlier testing, those that make policy that affects the potential patient(s) and the medical community trying to serve them seem to be headed in the wrong direction.  Their concern is that there is an increase in unnecessary treatment that in their eye is caused by a test that is inaccurate. My response, give the doctors a better test!  But don't cause a firestorm and perhaps give even more men yet another reason to not go to the doctor.

It was estimated that I had my cancer for as long as 10 years before it was detected at stage three by the PSA blood test.  How many other men out there won't do the test now because they are being told that it isn't always right.

I recently had an old college friend tell me that when he had an annual check-up and asked about a PSA test, the doctor told him "you're too young for that test.  It's not necessary."  Then he told the doctor about his college friend who, at the same age, had a very different experience.

Prostate Cancer is nearly 100% curable when caught early.  Men already face a 1 in 6 chance of developing prostate cancer in their lifetime. I have to now ask the ACS - "Why change the odds in finding it?"

CJP