The PSA Debate: Competing Interests

I have a personal and professional interest in how this debate plays out.

My Dad died with prostate cancer, not from it. He was 78 when he passed away in 1994. Sixteen years later, my brother died from prostate cancer. He was 52 when he passed away in 2010. Since Dad died I’ve had both the PSA blood test and digital exam on an annual basis. Am I wasting time and money?

Professionally, the Center for Practical Bioethics paid significant attention to the mammography debate sparked by this same panel two years ago. I’ve asked my friend and colleague, Terry Rosell, if similar attention might be paid to this debate.

It’s only ethical, isn’t it?

L2

Links:

Panel’s Advice on Prostate Test Sets Up Battle
Gardiner Harris
New York Times
October 7, 2011

Their hope is to copy the success of women’s groups that successfully persuaded much of the country two years ago that it was a mistake for the same panel, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, to recommend against routine mammograms for women in their 40s.

Lecture: To Screen or Not to Screen? Ethical Controversies in Mammography Screening, March 24, 2010