How many of you are living because of PSA screening?

MYMAN is right.

Some of you may have been overtreated but that's not the question.

Here's my answer to the question.
I would either be dead or on the way out if I hadn't been tested.
I had zero symptoms and normal DRE, my PSA was 20.6.
If I hadn't been tested it would have become distantly metastatic.

Sue, I will continue to constrain my reply in this thread to your original post comments , or to questions you have raised in response to my earlier reply…     There are, indeed, “ incurable unstoppable [variants of] PC ” as you described in your reply to me.   But this describes a completely different disease than what I had…and it is completely different than what most men here (and everywhere) have.   The fact that I am “ here another day, month, year ” has absolutely nothing to do with PSA screening or my treatment.   I became aware that my prostate cells were (naturally) aging because of the PSA screening test, but my longevity was never at risk.     On the other hand, as I have stated, there is a small percentage of other cases for which there is no cure…it is indeed, to re-use your phrase, incurable & unstoppable.   For these uncommon variants, “ buying time is the name of the game ,” quoting the man known as the father of urologic oncology, Dr. Willet Whitmore…one of your comments in your reply to me also acknowledges this perspective.     Yet we “brand” both of these two distinctly different cases with the same name:   “prostate cancer.”   It’s crazy that both conditions go by the same name, and we do a terrible disservice to BOTH groups of men at both ends of the spectrum by calling this the same disease name.   As usual and as I have done here many times before, I wish to draw a very clear line in the sand to distinguish between “screening” (the mass, annual, population-based use of the PSA test) and “testing” of individuals, which includes baselining, based on actual risk (age, race, family history, and other factors) and possible, early, clinical indications of in individual patients (e.g., lower urinary tract symptoms). I believe that the PSA test is a clinically useful test when used appropriately but that its current use is very definitely associated with over-treatment—and arguably over-diagnosis—of clinically insignificant forms of prostate cancer.   With technology and knowledge available today, the medical community is capable and does (at least in limited environments) safely identify and separate those who need treatment from those who do not.   This does not mean that everyone is “saved.”   There are, as previously stated, “ incurable, unstoppable [variants of] PC ” for which there is (ultimately) nothing currently to do but seek to buy more time by throwing the list of this, that and the other drug at it.   THIS is the area where we should be lobbying and focusing our energies for more research and development…in my mind, our society has chosen to waste our scarce and limited medical resources performing large numbers of “elective” procedures for favorable risk cases which do not affect longevity.   (Even though I shouldn’t have to make this clarification, I do want to distinguish that my last statement clearly and specifically called out favorable risk cases.)   Anyone who wants to “do good” for PC should, in my view, look at supporting the efforts of the research activities and grants by the PCF, the Prostate Cancer Foundation.   If one has a moment, take a look at the PCF research objectives, and in particular look at the impressive Young Investigator Awards program.   This organization is focused in the important areas of improving longevity for men with PC, and I would point out that none of their efforts are focused on PSA screening.   We should all strongly consider this when we decide where to expend our own energies.   http://www.pcf.org/site/c.leJRIROrEpH/b.5849009/k.5BFC/Research_Accomplishments.htm       Your original post said:  "how many of the people posting here feel that they are alive because of active PC screening," and also "From posts I read I don't seem to hear that PSA screening didn't help them."  PSA screening did not help in a case like mine...and it would have been a hollow thread response/posting had I not explained this perspective.  I could understand how your perspective, established through your late husband's experiences, might not take into consideration the set of men (which turns out to be a much larger set of men) with such a vastly different set of case characteristics...even though both are known as "prostate cancer."   Post Edited (JackH) : 10/15/2015 3:20:29 PM (GMT-6)

Our local hospital is having a health fair this weekend. Schedule shows blood sugar and cholesterol screening but no PSA. I asked the event coordinator, who I know personally, why not? She acted like it was not an important thing to offer, even though she share that her own husband had been dx'ed with PCA, and his GO had dropped the ball in screening during regular check-up. I am so dumbfounded by the attitude toward PSA testing! I will be following up on this and trying to rectify!

The Ms. hit the nail on the head! There is the flip side to Sue' s question. How many men will lose their life due to "someone dropped the ball" (ie;no PSA test and/or no follow up by GP). The poll I posted in another thread and stories I've read here already answer that question. If this sub group is any indication of men as a whole, the education needs to be extended to the GPs about conducting test and folllow up. They certainly wouldn't have a colonoscopy done and forget to give the patient results or misinterpret results! And boy is there a push for colonoscopies. I doubt I'm mistaken if I say the risk of colon cancer in men is less than PCa.

Sue,

I'm so sorry for your loss. I lurked around on your thread, though I never posted. My DH had a PSA test with a reading of 7.9 2 years before diagnosis. The GP simply didn't mention it. A DOT physical 2 years later showed a PSA of 26. Had he not had the PSA test done, who knows where he would be now. As it stands we are battling G9, with positive lymph nodes and positive margins all around. I agree 100% that a PSA test may have saved his life.

It's not just the test itself, but the education of doctors and the public as to what PSA numbers might mean.

Yes, screening helped me get a jump in this battle..

There has been so much going on in the world of PC. They have admitted that there is a huge increase of 20% of metastic high gleason terminal cancer because of of not screening. I am happy when I read your responses and know that many of you because of screening have been able to find your cancer when you can be offered life saving treatments.How is this over treating? I am not saying that Dave wouldn't have ever gotten cancer but I truly believe that his life could have been spared by early detection. I feel so strongly that there has to be a way of defining what is a mans physical? If you ignore the prostate at the appointment is that a complete physical? Whos job is it to educate about prostate health .Why is it that its us the people who have suffered or who have lost their loved ones to this despicable disease . My husband died at 64 this August and it just sickens me in a way I will never get over that someone gambled with his life and he paid the price.