Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/10/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]If I may, I might interject, as my day job is as a cancer surgeon, treating breast cancer and melanoma. The problem is to do with the balance of benefit v risk. Screening healthy people is very different to treating people with symptoms. One day, healthy people are walking down the street, the next they are facing a life threatening diagnosis and all that entails. Biopsies, surgery with possible complications etc. Problem with prostate cancer is that not all prostate cancers are the same. Some people will get an more aggressive form, but many people will have a more indolent version of the disease, which doesn?t kill them. Like all screening tests, there will be ?false positives? ie positive test results (eg PSA blood test) in people who don?t have cancer, as well as ?false negative? tests - ie a normal PSA in someone with cancer (very unusual in prostate cancer). The false positive group is the real issue in screening as we can potentially do harm to healthy people who don?t have cancer. Even in people who do have cancer, not all of them will develop the aggressive type that becomes non-responsive to hormone drugs. A radical prostatectomy has its problems including urinary incontinence and inability to have erections. Sure, you would trade that if you had the aggressive prostate cancer type, but maybe not if you had the indolent version. Difficult thing is that we can?t tell which person has which type yet. So, it?s not easy. Even breast screening with mammography is not as straight forward as it seems. There are many who think (probably correctly) that the benefits are far less than that which is trumpeted to the public. Best wishes, Charlie Chan Cheltenham, UK topoxforddoc at btinternet.com www.cancer-surgeon.co.uk www.charlie-chan.co.uk On 7 Oct 2011, at 19:57, Gary Pinkerton wrote: > At first glance, it's as though they are saying that the screening itself > (blood test) can cause problems. > But, isn't it more about how the results of the screening are dealt with > (unnecesary surgeries, biopsies, etc)? > Of course, I'm easily confused, so maybe I'm misunderstanding what they > are saying :) > >> From: steve.barbour at gmail.com >> Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2011 11:40:05 -0700 >> To: lug at leica-users.org >> Subject: [Leica] OT Panel advises against prostate cancer screening - >> Yahoo! News >> >> this subject came up in the recent past... >> >> >> fyi >> >> >> http://news.yahoo.com/panel-advises-against-prostate-cancer-screening-024452851.html >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information