When PSA screen makes sense

Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, were trying to weigh when it makes sense to PSA screen, and how. So they ran computer models on 35 different variations in prostate cancer screening, shuffling ages to stop and start screening, PSA levels, screening frequency, and other variables.

They found that doing PSA tests less often in men at low risk of prostate cancer would substantially reduce the harm of overtreatment, while increasing the risk of death only slightly. Setting a higher threshold for PSA levels for older men would accomplish t

However, this study is the sort of sophisticated thinking that needs to be done about cancer screening. There’s a tradeoff between trying to find every last case, and dragging everyone else through the mud - and hurting them along the way. The idea that men have one rule for screening, that everybody gets screened at the same rate using the same threshold for the same period of time, doesn’t make sensehe same thing.