NBC prostate show and misinformation

Well said, Selmer,
I heard the insurance industry has a say in this as well. Just for curiosity I looked up the cost of a PSA test ~ $71.00. Wow! seventy-one bucks to know. Total cost for annual PSA's from 40 to 50 is under a grand. Now I have to have them bi-monthly, with Lupron shots, RO followups, and everything else. It would have cost the insurance company a lot less to have found this while it was still contained in the prostate. It's probably cost them a quarter million by now.

Tony

It is interesting that the medical community stresses testing for a variety of cancers, protate and colon being examples, at age 50. I know that demographics indicate that incidence rates for many, if not most, cancers increase with age. A factor often overlooked, however, is that cancer that occurs in younger men is often more aggressive. As we age, many of our biological functions slow down, but younger men, in their early forties perhaps, might have even more to gain from earlier detection. And as we all know, the earlier cancer is detected, the better.

Conflicting studiess seem to be the rule. Now they are saying women should not do self exams of their breasts because it leads to unnecessary testing and biopsies. We have a 36 yr old niece who just found her own lump and it turned out to be a fast growing high grade tumor. She was very lucky that her nodes are clear but she is now undergoing chemo to shrink the tumor before surgery. I would prefer that my family and loved ones be their own advocates and get tested early. I recently encouraged my 40 year old son to get his first PSA. I don't care what some of these studies say. The problem is they may be accurate about a large group of people, but they don't mean caca with respect to any given individual. I am an advocate for early testing for anyone who wants it, especially when there is a family history. And how many families don't have a history of some type of cancer? I was volunteer of the year at Moffit Cancer Center in Tampa a few years back and my forte was consuling new patients, mostly advanced stage melanoma, but also a variety including prostate and even breast. Imagine the irony of me having a negative biopsy with a PSA over 10 consuling a patient with prostate cancer and a PSA of 4.5 prior to surgery. One of my first lessons in dealing with cancer was to place less importance on statistics based on large groups, and fucusing instead on the fact that every individual is unique, and even some of the most advanced patients will somehow pull through. I also learned, over and over again, the value of early detection. So I am a very vocal advocate of early and routine testing (especially relatively low cost non invasive testing like PSA).

I agree with you Selmer. Good nutrition is probably a much better prevention than cure for cancer. I have always been lean and athletic all my life. Always tried to eat a healthy balanced diet (still have a 32 waist), but I'll be damed if some things just seem to be punishment for living long. haha You have a nice day!

43??? Bless you dude. Sometimes life sure isn't fair. I'm only about 5 months out and the doc said he was able to spare the nerves, but Mr Happy hasn't made even a brief appearance and I'm not optimistic. But being an old phaert,  I'd give up my shot if you could regain yours.