This Prostate Cancer Awareness Week, getting reliable information, advice also challenging
Testing, and treatment for prostate cancer leave a lot to be desired. It's worth checking to see if they're worthwhile for you.
Prostate Canceris not uncommon in older men, but medical researchers question whether either tests or treatment are worthwhile.
The test is the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) and it's recognized as not very reliable, so the concern is that its false positives can scare a lot of test-takers. The American Society of Clinical Oncology website has a tool for deciding if it makes sense to have the test.
And, if positively diagnosed, recent research shows that after ten years, men who've been treated are no more likely to be alive than untreated men, according to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Our health researcher and SUNY Upstate Psychologist, Dr. Richard O'Neill, says it's important to stay calm, even with a positive test, and do homework before deciding next steps. He suggests getting information from a neutral source, like the National Library of Medicine (which is not promoting products or services) and then talk to a doctor who knows yuor specific risk factors, but is also up to date on recent research and developments in the field.
