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USPSTF to re-assess harms and benefits of PSA-based screening for risk of prostate cancer

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Posted 10/30/2015 8:21 PM (GMT 0)
As reported at the "New" Prostate Cancer Infolink:

http://prostatecancerinfolink.net/2015/10/30/uspstf-to-re-assess-harms-and-benefits-of-psa-based-screening-for-risk-of-prostate-cancer/
Posted 10/30/2015 8:37 PM (GMT 0)
I sure hope they do. I lost two years of crucial treatment time that I directly attribute to their recommendation against screening. In MY particular case I believe that not getting screened caused harm.
Posted 10/30/2015 9:16 PM (GMT 0)
My crystal ball is warming up...
Posted 10/30/2015 9:31 PM (GMT 0)
This is good to hear. I'm going to go to the referenced website(s) and read the study plan.
Posted 11/3/2015 2:04 PM (GMT 0)
Good. If their guidelines had been in place when I first got diagnosed by PSA in 2009, I'd be in terrible shape right now.
Posted 11/4/2015 3:54 AM (GMT 0)
mattamx, I'm glad to hear this too, though I wonder what reassessment they'll be doing. New data? Weighting factors differently? Not sure why they'd do this.

And yes, their recommendations have clearly been based on letting the severe cases go undetected, thus untreated, to avoid overtreating many more low risk cases and to save money. It's that cynical position that I find so offensive. Severe cases are expensive to treat. So, let our aggressive cases become so severe they're simply beyond hope, by leaving them undetected until perhaps bone pain finally drives us to a doctor having become wildly metastatic, then send us home to cheap palliative hospice care.
Posted 11/4/2015 6:02 AM (GMT 0)
Do ya think??? rolleyes rolleyes
Posted 11/4/2015 11:39 AM (GMT 0)
Yeah. cry Paying attention to those idiots delayed me a solid 11 months. That cost me plenty. mad
Posted 11/4/2015 11:54 AM (GMT 0)
Go HERE: www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/Page/Name/us-preventive-services-task-force-opportunities-for-public-comment to comment on their draft plan. It's open for public comment until the end of November.

My gripes with the draft plan:
1. They are still defining overdiagnosis in terms of whether or not someone would have been diagnosed anyway later.
2. They are still defining Biopsy as a treatment.
3. They are still treating PSA as if it's being used as an exclusive diagnostic tool (automatically going from a high PSA reading to aggressive treatment with no intervening diagnostic steps).
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