Hi Curtis,
I heard this article....
I had RP done at Stanford.
If I went with the idea that high PSA was a standard......3 to 8
I would have relaxed, and so would the urologist, and I would have cancer
today...(I may still)
so, what does a man do.
Does he get a PSA test, and opt for watchful waiting.....if the test is say
3 to 7/////
Or does he follow up, and get a biopsy?
If the biopsy shows cancer should he wait?
I am not very clinical, and do understand.
I had aggressive cancer...per biopsy/
I heard now the test is if with a DRE, and a lump is felt, it is time to
excavate.
Anyway....just wondering.
John Loomis
my comments - this same article with sections used for their own
viewpoint has been posted in reuters, wedMD, cancer facts.com, medical
news today.  it's a shame to think of all the men who are going to read
this article and might think that the psa is useless, so why bother.  so
much damage is done by presenting an article such as this, that how can
you go out and actively proclaim prostate cancer awareness next week,
when one of the tools that is used is under attack?

~ curtis

==========================

Inventor of PSA cancer test says it's overused

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - For many men, a routine PSA blood test to
screen for prostate cancer has become an annual ritual. Now the
developer of the test says it can't be relied on for this purpose, and
has led to overly zealous treatment of men with prostate enlargement.
Dr. Thomas A. Stamey at Stanford University first reported in 1987 that
levels of PSA in the blood could be used as a marker of prostate cancer.
"What we didn't know in the early years is that benign growth of the
prostate is the most common cause of a PSA level between 1 and 10
ng/mL," Stamey notes in a university press release. Standard units of
measurement of PSA are nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) of blood.
Stamey's group found that the average size and invasiveness of prostate
cancers have been dropping over the past two decades, to the point that
the cancers being discovered may not be clinically meaningful.
The investigators examined tissue from 1317 prostates removed at
Stanford since 1983. During the first 5-year period, 91 percent of
cancers were obvious on digital rectal examination (DRE), and average
volume of the cancer was 5.33 cc. Between 1999 and 2003, these values
had declined to 17 percent and 2.44 cc.
Also, the degree to which the tumor had penetrated the wall of the
prostate dropped from an average of 1.54 to 0.22 centimeters between the
two periods.
What has happened, Stamey and his colleagues suggest in the Journal of
Urology, is that prostate cancer is being over-treated, given that most
men will develop the disease if they live long enough and the fact that
death from prostate cancer is uncommon in elderly men.
The authors conclude that the extensive use of PSA screening is not
warranted. Instead, they recommend "careful palpation of the prostate"
by DRE -- since cancers found in this way "almost always require some
form of treatment."
SOURCE: Journal of Urology, October 2004.
Copyright ? 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication
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means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of
Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the
content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the
Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the
Reuters group of companies around the world.

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional
"Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is
invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so."