Prostate PSA Screening; What is the Score?

Prostate PSA Screening – What’s the Score?

It wouldn’t take you much digging around to find some really controversial information about the whole of the cancer industry – and that’s why – it is an industry worth billions of dollars!

A study funded by the Lance Armstrong Foundation estimated that the global cancer industry was worth $305 billion (2009), and it’s estimated that the industry could be worth $638 billion by 2030!

Now, the latest cancer industry revelation is regarding the lack of benefit from having Prostate PSA Screening, but rather the potential harm it could cause!

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in British men, with about 37,000 diagnosed with the disease in 2008 and 10,170 dying of it.

For the first time ever, the longest study on prostate cancer comes from a 20 year survey of more than 9,000 Swedish men. Paid for by the Swedish Cancer Foundation and other groups, the results were published 31 March 2011 in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

The study found that the men who were checked for tumours were no more likely to survive the disease than those who were not!

9,026 men were selected, with 1,494 given tests every third year between 1987 and 1996, and the rest acting as controls. Those who had contracted prostate cancer by 1999 were identified: 85 of whom (5.7%) had undergone screening and 292 (3.9%) who had not.

They were tracked over the following decade and researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm say the results “did not show significantly longer survival or overall survival for men with prostate cancer in the screened group compared with the control group”.

“While screening and treating men with detected tumours might reduce deaths specifically from prostate cancer by up to a third (at best), this would be at considerable risk of worrying over-detection and unpleasant or harmful overtreatment.”

The fear now is that widespread screenings for prostate cancer are likely to lead to many men to undergo unnecessary treatment, without actually preventing death. The standard PSA blood test looks for high levels of prostate specific antigen, and the test is controversial because the PSA level can be high for many reasons – and a positive result must be confirmed by a biopsy.

These false positive tests can cause significant harm, including psychological distress and treatments that can cause impotence and incontinence.

The authors of the study say “men should be warned before screening about the potential risks of cancer treatment, and the effects on their lives of wrongly being told they have a dangerous tumour”.

Even in 1993, the British Medical Journal Lancet published a study that showed early screening often lead to unnecessary treatment; after the of age 75, half of males may have prostate cancer, but mortality rates only range from 0.1-2.4%. More specifically, the overall 5-year relative prostate cancer survival rate for 1995-2002 was 99%. The 5-year relative prostate cancer survival rates by race were 99.9% for white men and 97.6% for black men, regardless whether they had few or no signs or symptoms of prostate cancer, were free of disease, or had treatment.

Government recommendations (August 2008) called for oncologists to no longer treat men with prostate cancer past the age of 75 years because the treatments do more harm than good and offer no advantages over no treatment at all.

Another way of looking at it…

Best selling author Andreas Moritz ‘s Cancer is not a Disease – It’s a Survival Mechanism is a book that may rock or even dismantle the very foundation of your beliefs about the body, health and healing, as it offers the open-minded reader concerned about cancer a radically different understanding of what cancer really is.

Today’s conventional approaches of killing, cutting or burning cancerous cells offer a mere 7% “success” rate for cancer remission, and the majority of the few survivors are “cured” for just a period of five years or less. In his book, you will discover what actually causes cancer and why it is so important to heal the whole person, not just the symptoms of cancer. You will also learn that cancer occurs only after all other defence mechanisms in the body have failed. A malignant tumour is not a vicious monster that is out to kill us in retaliation for our sins or abuse of our body. As you will find out, cancer does not attempt to kill the body; to the contrary, it tries to save it. However, unless we change our perception of what cancer really is, it will continue to threaten the life of one out of every two people.

Finally…

Dis-ease doesn’t happen to us, it happens because of us!

What lifestyle do you lead? What food do you eat? Do you exercise? Note the running theme – you are in control of all of these areas.

You can logically conclude that a healthy mindset and lifestyle can beget a long and healthy life. Not just reaching old age, but having a quality of life in your old age.

What you can do for your health, whether its for your prostate or another area of your body?

Prevention is always going to be better than cure!

Please note that none of the above information is intended to dissuade you away from allopathic treatment, but rather to encourage you to take a good look at yourself and explore the reasons why you are ailing, if indeed you are, and to work with those, as well as seek medical advice from a good health care practitioner.

For more information on Men’s Health:

The Good Health Guide: Prostate Problems; The latest Medical, Natural and Alternative Treatments for Prostate Problems by Mark Greener is a must if you are a man aged 45+. An easy to read, helpful and insightful guide, perfect whether you are wishing to prevent or cure a prostate problem. £3.99

Proslan Food Supplement contains vital vitamins and minerals, such as Zinc, Lycopene and Saw Palmetto for optimum nutrition, with a focus on prostate health. From £13.50

Proslan Food Supplement by Nutri Health